Lute, Meet Your Monstie!
by Cottonmouth25
Summary: What if Lute hadn't found a Rathalos egg at the shrine in the Forbidden Land? What if that egg had contained something else? A three-shot that explores twenty-four short scenarios about Lute raising different kinds of Monsties, based on the Monster Hunter Stories anime. Purely humor, lots of anime/game spoilers, and bits of Lute x Avinia.
1. Chapter 1

**Lute, Meet Your Monstie! (Part 1)**

 **Salutations, greetings, and many great hellos!**

 **So, the idea for this admittedly random and goofy story just popped into my head one day as I was thinking of ideas for a multi-chapter novelization of Monster Hunter Stories. Basically, I was thinking of possible different Monsties to set the MC up with, and then I realized how funny it would be if Lute had found a non-Rathalos egg in the first anime episode. And thus, this story was born!**

 **DISCLAIMER – I do not own the Monster Hunter franchise.**

 **Without further ado, here are sixteen Monsties Lute probably** ** _shouldn't_** **have started with.**

* * *

 **Monstie #1 – the Strange Poison Bird**

Lute stared at the mossy old egg held firmly in his hands. There was no way that this ancient thing could have hung onto life for all the years it had been sitting at the shrine. Indeed, Cheval and Lilia didn't look like they believed such a thing, and Navirou was flat-out skeptical, the unhelpful little snot.

But somehow, Lute thought otherwise. There was something about this egg that just… spoke to him. Somehow, he could feel the sleeping monster within its crusty old shell, waiting for a Rider to bestow upon it his blessing and awaken it.

"It's alive," he whispered, to the shock of his friends. "I can feel it."

"HA!" Navirou immediately scoffed. "Here he goes again with his 'I can feel it' business. Meanwhile, his feelings haven't been right about a single thing yet!"

Ignoring the annoying talking animal, the young boy took his intense gaze off of the egg and leveled it at Lilia. "Do you have any idea how we can hatch this thing?"

Feeling put on the spot, the knowledgeable girl shifted her feet uncertainly and answered, "Hatch an egg? Well, I'm pretty sure we need a Kinship Rite to do that. And that would require a Kinship Stone."

"That's a problem…" Cheval noted in his soft voice. "We haven't gotten our Kinship Stones yet."

"But by tomorrow, we will have!" added Lila. She protested, "Come on, Lute, can't hatching this egg wait just one more day?"

Lute wanted to say yes. He knew that it was the smart thing to do. Instead of staying out here in the Forbidden Land – which were infested with Arzuroses by the way – they could take the egg back to the village and request to hatch it at the ceremony.

However, this time it wasn't Lute's rash, excitable nature that convinced him not to wait. Rather, it was the feeling he got from the egg between his palms. It was inexplicable, but he could _feel_ the unborn monster's desire to hatch immediately – right now, by his hand.

And so, that was what he said… "I feel like this guy wants to hatch now."

Cheval and Lilia were taken aback by the certainty in his voice. They were shocked, but did not argue further. The only girl in the party of four found them flat rocks to hold in their left hands, and together they formed a triangle around the egg.

"But these are just plain old rocks," complained Cheval.

"Hey, quiet down!" Lilia yelled at him. "This ceremony is sacred!"

Okay, so one of them argued further.

Once they'd all settled down and held up their rocks, a hushed silence fell on the shrine and surrounding forest clearing. Eyes closed reverently, Lilia began the holy Rite of Kinship.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

It was not long before the egg began to crack, small glowing crevasses zigzagging every which way along its mossy shell. The egg tipped over onto its side, the glow from its many cracks growing brighter and brighter with every passing second. Eyes blown wide with wonder, Lute watched as the pieces of eggshell shuddered and fell apart, the light abruptly dimming to reveal…

"A Gypceros!" the brunette boy praised. "Wow, I'm so happy to have you as my Monstie!"

-.-.-.-.-.

Two days later, Lute was eating his words.

The overgrown turkey he had named 'Gyppy' was rapidly proving to be more than he could handle. That would've been fine if he'd hatched something like, say, a Rathalos – at least a Rathalos only had fire breath as the worst thing it could do to harm the village if it acted up.

No, Gyppy had _poison_ breath, and anyone who got too close to the bird wyvern during Lute's Rider training classes would get a face full of venom and needed to be carted off to the healer's.

"Come _on_ , Gyppy! Why don't you do what I say?!" Lute cried indignantly, while in the background a grumpier-than-usual Genie escorted a vomiting Hyoro away from the Monstie stables to see the healer.

The baby Gypceros simply squawked and continued its tantrum, eventually throwing Lute right off of its back before running for the hills. Lute allowed his shoulders to sag with a dejected sigh as he watched his Monstie shrink to a mere speck in the distance.

"Gee, you are definitely not in top form today, Lute," sighed the senior Rider, Dan, with an exasperated shake of his head. "Don't worry, Stone is out gathering Smoke Bomb materials with his Popo. Once your Gypceros reaches him, he'll get it to calm down in no time."

Frowning now, Dan added thoughtfully, "It is strange that we've run out of Smoke Bombs so quickly, though… I could've sworn we gathered more materials last week…"

Lute winced and looked away, trying not to draw Dan's attention. He didn't have the heart to tell his trainer that Gyppy had quickly got into the bad habit of stealing anything that caught its eye and stashing it away in the house that Lute shared with Navirou. It seemed to have a penchant for shiny things, including Mrs. Vlau's necklace (Lute still had no idea how he was going to fess up to Cheval), and now Smoke Bombs if Dan was to be believed.

Just then, from somewhere beyond the hill in the far distance, there was a sudden flash of light.

"What was that?!" Dan exclaimed.

"Gyppy," Lute muttered hopelessly. "Lilia says that Gypceroses bang their crests against their beaks to create a blinding flash when they get startled."

"I hope Stone's alright out there," the older Rider remarked.

There was no way Lute was going to tell him that his kleptomaniac Monstie was probably going to ensure that Stone came back wearing nothing but his underwear.

"I'm so sorry I have you as my Monstie," he mumbled to himself.

* * *

 **Monstie #2 – the Charging Wyvern**

Three human children closed their eyes solemnly as they held their faux Kinship Stones high in the air. Lilia's calm voice rang out into the forest clearing as she spoke the sacred words of the Rite of Kinship.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

To the shock of all those present, the egg cracked immediately and put forth a faint yet undeniably powerful glow. It fell over on its side and wiggled continuously, the cracks spreading and the glow brightening with every struggle. Eventually, the fractured eggshells exploded outward, allowing Lute to see the magnificent beast that lay within.

That is, if your definition of 'magnificent' was slimy white skin, stumpy wings, and an eyeless muzzle that looked uncomfortably like part of a human male's anatomy.

Even Lute was cringing as he regarded the little eyesore. "Ugh… is that a Khezu?"

"Looks that way to Navirou," the cat shrugged.

The baby Khezu let out perhaps the ugliest squeak any of them had ever heard in their lives.

"Well…" murmured Cheval, trying to be optimistic. "At least what you hatched is sorta unique. None of the other Riders are likely to get a Khezu."

Brightening, Lute agreed, "Yeah, you're right! I've went and got myself a super-rare Monstie! All _right_!"

Now, all that remained was to give it a name and take it back to the village. Hmm… now what else to call it other than 'Penis Monster'?

-.-.-.-.-.

Somewhere in an alley in the city of Gildegaran, an old man raised an intrigued eyebrow at Lute and the information he'd just divulged.

"Now wait a sec," rasped Nadon. "You've heard about Kinship Ore?"

"We're traveling the world, finding and purifying all the Kinship Ore tainted by the Black Blight," Lute confirmed.

The shifty-eyed elder wisely stroked his beard. "Oh yes, sure. Kinship Ore's gotta be clear as crystal, or else it don't kinship! M'dear ancestor coulda never saved the world without them rocks."

The wannabe hunter Debli (and wannabe con artist, come to think of it – his hustling was not nearly as good as he thought it was) nodded sagely at the wisdom coming from his teacher's mouth. "See, Lute?" he bragged. "Isn't Nadon just the greatest ever? He can help you find that Kinship Ore for sure!"

"Don't hafta," Nadon grunted, making Debli double-take in surprise. "Our young Rider friend can just have that there Monstie of his sniff it out."

He pointed casually at Zuzu, Lute's Khezu, who had curled up next to its owner for a quick nap while they chatted. The brown-haired boy turned around to stare in bewilderment at the pale white wyvern, scarcely able to believe what the old man was saying.

"Wait, Zuzu can really do that?" he asked in awe.

"Sure, sure," insisted Nadon. "No monster's better at sniffin' stuff out than a Khezu. Why, that beastie of yers could track a Felyne through a forest, that one could. Why don't ya take it for a spin, see if it can find yer Kinship Ore for ya?"

The epiphany struck Lute like a thunderbolt from out of the sky. It made _total_ sense. If he'd been using Zuzu to track down the blackened Kinship Ore from the very beginning, all of their struggles in the desert could've been completely avoided!

"Oh wow! Thank you, sir!" Lute burst out, ecstatic. "Our quest will be over in no time!"

Nadon began to retreat back toward his rather pathetic bed in the corner of the alley. "Welp, if that's all ya need me for, feel free to come back on over and tell me how it goes. That Monstie won't steer ya wrong, son!"

Lute, Navirou, and Debli exited the shadowy alleyway and walked back into the city proper, followed by the Khezu. There were more than a few passersby that were shocked to see the ugly monster standing in the middle of the street with the oddly-dressed children and mutant Felyne, but they paid it no more heed and continued about their business.

"Okay, Zuzu, let's track the scent of that Kinship Ore!" said Lute, holding out his left hand. The blind wyvern obediently bent its head to give his Kinship Stone a couple of sniffs.

"Navirou still thinks you could've just trusted in his exceptional navigation skills to find that ore, you know," Navirou uttered as he watched Zuzu become familiar with the stone's scent.

For once, Lute completely ignored the cat instead of giving him a snappy reply, and lowered his hand once he was certain that Zuzu had enough of a scent to lead them onward. The Khezu paused, turning its head left and right as it sniffed tentatively at the air. This went on for a few moments, but then it let out an excited grunt and began to run off down the street.

"It's heading toward the market!" Debli cried.

"Whoa, that was fast!" cheered Lute. "Good job, Zuzu! Lead us to the Kinship Ore!"

They took off at a run, their arms and legs madly pumping as they pursued the Khezu. There was no way Navirou could keep up at the pace they were going, so he smartly clung onto Debli's backpack so he'd be carried along for the ride. Their feverish pace was justified for two reasons – one being the Kinship Ore, and the second being that they didn't want to risk leaving Zuzu unattended in a city crawling with monster hunters.

Zuzu led the trio on a relatively straight path, with only the occasional turn down a different street. The chase ended in a crowded marketplace occupied exclusively by morning shoppers and street vendors hawking their wares for the public to purchase. Lute and Debli found themselves on a clear path as Zuzu charged through the crowds without regard for the safety of pedestrians, and thus their mouths moved constantly as they called out apology after apology to those they passed by.

Finally, Zuzu stopped, and the two humans almost crashed into it. They walked to either side of the leech-like wyvern to see what it had found – and they simultaneously face-faulted, as they certainly weren't standing in front of any Kinship Ore. Rather, it was…

"DONUTS!" screeched Navirou. The obsessed Felyne literally dove right into the piles of pastries that were displayed on the table, shoveling them into his mouth one after the other. "Mmm, Navirou finds himself in heaven, surrounded by such delectable donuts! Zuzu, Navirou's palate thanks you a thousand times for leading him to such a paradise!"

"Wow," Debli said, surprised. "Teacher was right when he said that your Khezu had a good sniffer!"

The seriously annoyed merchant yelled, "Hey, are you going to pay for all of those?!"

Lute facepalmed and shot a withering glare at his Monstie, who was getting its acidic drool all over the donuts. "That's it, I'm going with Penis Monster from now on."

* * *

 **Monstie #3 – the Bubble Fox Wyvern**

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

No sooner had the words left Lilia's mouth than the egg reacted, cracking all over its round surface and bringing forth a glow from within. When the egg exploded, the fragments fell apart to reveal the monster that had awakened.

It was unlike anything the group had seen before. Its body was serpent-like and covered with pink fins and white scales, while its tail and underbelly possessed soft purple fur. Fish-like whiskers twitched as its elegant snout stretched open in a cute yawn. Curiously, its overall appearance seemed like a combination of fish, reptile, and mammal.

"What is it…?" Cheval murmured in wonder, bending over with his hands on his knees to more closely examine the newborn monster. "I've never even seen a monster like this in books."

"Lilia, you're the all-knowing one," Lute spoke up. However, his eyes never left his mysterious new Monstie. "Do you know what this is?"

Navirou had a sage look on his face as he answered him before the girl was even able to open her mouth. He said in a tone of deep thought, "Navirou can tell you that it's… um, you know, one of those. It's, uh, _that_ monster. You know, the pink one with the fancy fins. Navirou is sure that you can figure it out from his helpful hints."

Without missing a beat, Lilia explained, "I think it's called… Mizutsune. Yes, that's it. But I don't know much about it. No Rider has ever had one as a Monstie, or else we'd have more information."

Amazed, Lute's eyes were fixed upon the miraculous fox-snake-looking monster. The baby blinked innocently up at its star-struck Rider and yipped at him.

All at once, an ecstatic grin stretched across Lute's face. "This is so _awesome_!" he enthused, bending down to cradle the Mizutzune's head in his hands and let it nuzzle him lovingly. "A Monstie no-one's ever ridden before! We can be the ones to discover what it can do! I can't wait for Rider training with Dan!"

-.-.-.-.-.

A few days later, Dan and Genie led the apprentice Riders out to a field near the stables and told them that they would be having a mock battle. The idea was to get them used to fighting other Riders, since Hakum Village was by no means the only village where Riders existed, and some of them could be hostile. Besides, fighting in a mock battle would prove to further strengthen the still-growing kinship between the kids and their new Monsties.

Lute was instructed to go up against Hyoro in the first mock battle. They squared off at opposite ends of the small field, each of them already perched confidently on the saddles strapped to their Monsties' backs – Lute on Mizu and Hyoro on his Bulldrome.

"Hyoro, just because this is a mock battle doesn't mean I'm not expecting you to win," Genie said sternly, from his position beside his brother.

"But Genie…" the timid boy mumbled. "We never learned anything about Mizutsune in our training. None of us know what Lute's Monstie can do…"

Raising his voice slightly, the blonde snapped, "Look, it's not that hard. It's a leviathan, which means it's most likely better in the water than on land. Your Bulldrome is powerful on flat ground, while they have a disadvantage. Do I always have to point out the obvious to you?"

Hyoro muttered something offensive under his breath, which his pushy older brother fortunately didn't catch.

"Alright, let's start the battle!" shouted Dan.

Going off of what he'd been told, Hyoro immediately had his Bulldrome charge straight ahead at Lute and Mizu. Lute hesitated, not expecting the bold move and already feeling cautious because he didn't know anything about Mizu either. But the water fox reacted instinctively at the last second, jumping to the side and landing on its smooth-furred belly. Its own momentum allowed it to slide over the grass as if it were ice, leaving Hyoro to sloppily turn the Bulldrome around and try again.

Time after time, Mizu would slither away far more easily than it should have been able to on the grassy terrain – Lute gaining confidence all the while as he got a better idea of how to work with his mount. Hyoro was sweating, becoming more and more discouraged every time he had to steer his Bulldrome back towards his opponent. He made up for it in recklessness, with each of his charges becoming more desperate than the last.

Finally, the Bulldrome stumbled when it made its next turn. Lute saw the chance to strike and took it.

"Okay, Mizu! Let's attack!" the brown-haired boy yelled.

With a high-pitched squeal, the Mizutsune tightly coiled its body and made a quick spin, throwing its tail out in front of it. The long appendage lashed out, frothing with some kind of fluid and launching three pearly spheres straight at its target. Lute watched with great anticipation as the projectiles flew at the Bulldrome, waiting with bated breath for them to make contact…

…but instead of shattering or exploding or anything like that, they _popped_. They popped with the most harmless popping sound he'd ever heard, and left the Bulldrome's fur covered in soapy suds.

" _Bubbles_?!" Lute cried out. "You're _joking_!"

Under his hat, Hyoro blinked with surprise and lifted his hands up to wonderingly examine the bubbles sticking to them, as if amazed that he'd been hit with harmless bubbles and not something significantly more damaging, like a fire blast or something. The knowledge took several seconds to sink in, but when it finally did, Hyoro clutched the saddle and leaned forward with his mouth set in a determined line.

"Let's go, Bulldrome!" he cried, for once not mumbling. "If bubbles is the best it can do, we can charge it without worry!"

And so, the Bulldrome charged Mizu at full speed.

But Hyoro – and everyone else, in fact – had failed to notice a critically important detail. The entire field was coated with a thin film of slippery soap from Mizu's constant movements, making the grass underfoot dangerously wet and slick. It must have been that suspicious secretion that allowed the beautiful leviathan to lubricate the terrain and thus travel so easily over land. And as proven by Hyoro, it was an effective defense against enemy monsters.

How was it proven? The Bulldrome ran three steps forward and slipped.

… At fifty kilometers an hour.

"OH CRA–" Lute tried to shout, but never finished before the out-of-control wild pig hit him like a Tigrex.

Everyone who was spectating the mock battle immediately got out of the way as a Bulldrome, a Mizutsune, and two human kids slammed into the fence around the field's perimeter with enough force to completely flatten it.

Slowly and painfully, Lute and Hyoro extracted themselves from the awkward tangle of hooves, limbs, and tails that now sat on the ruined fence.

"Ow…" muttered Hyoro.

There were flabbergasted expressions all around as the other apprentice Riders peered at the aftermath of the disaster in confusion and horror. Even Genie, never one to pass up an opportunity to make a criticism, was speechless.

The only one who wasn't struck dumb was Dan. "Hoo boy, now that's what I call top form!" he guffawed.

Lute looked down at himself and reacted with disgust when he saw he was now covered in slimy soap and clingy bubbles. "Ugh, now this stuff's all over me!" he complained. "Can someone help me clean this off?"

His complaints immediately turned into panicked spluttering as Mizu promptly hosed him down with a jet of water powerful enough to send him flying into the nearby river.

* * *

 **Monstie #4 – the Crushing Wyvern**

"Oh _man_!" Lute exclaimed with utmost enthusiasm when a blue brute wyvern crawled out from the remnants of its egg. "That's a freakin' _Brachydios_ , isn't it?!"

"Wow, Lute, that's such a rare and powerful Monstie!" gushed Lilia, clasping her hands together with excitement. "You hardly ever see a Brachydios in this region! Good for you!"

"Yeah, that's lucky alright," Cheval smiled supportively at his surrogate brother.

Blushing, Lute replied, "Aww, thanks, you guys. But I'm sure you're going to get some awesome Monsties tomorrow too."

A small chirp uttered from the Brachydios hatchling's jaws as it stumbled uncertainly forward on its wobbly legs. It instinctively brought its paws to its mouth and licked them, causing a strange green slime to start oozing from its porous knuckle pads.

"He's kinda cute," Lute remarked. "Aren't you, Brachy? Aren't you a cute Monstie?"

The little blue dinosaur looked up at him and chirped happily, then abruptly made a strange face and sneezed. The force of the sneeze brought it down on its rump, sticky green stuff dribbling from its rounded horn like snot from a sick infant's nose.

"Cool, it's already gotten its mold production started!" Lilia commented.

"Mold production? Now what could Lilia be talking about, Navirou wonders?" Navirou spoke his thoughts aloud as he stepped forward to take a closer look at Brachy.

It, already about the same size as the deformed Felyne, responded by taking another step forward and hugging him with its forearms loosely clutching him. It even rubbed its glowing green horn against Navirou's face, seemingly having already accepted him as a sibling or a playmate.

Kind of sweet almost, in Lute's opinion.

Cheval agreed. "Hey, Navirou, it looks like Brachy really likes you."

Unfortunately, Navirou didn't share the sentiment. "Ick!" he retched, shrugging himself free of the blue Monstie's grip. "Navirou doesn't know what it is, but he certainly knows that he doesn't like having that slime all over him!"

"No, it's actually really interesting!" the green-eyed girl insisted. "That mold has a symbiotic relationship with Brachydios! It transports the slime from place to place so it can spread, and in return, it gets to use it as a weapon!"

The two boys and Felyne exchanged a glance, not having the foggiest clue about what Lilia meant.

"Seriously, you three?" she said with an unimpressed scoff. "Don't you guys ever read the Monsterpedia? The mold on a Brachydios' arms is its deadliest weapon because of its volatile nature! In other words, it's highly explosive!"

Navirou's eyes _sloooooowly_ wandered down to the thick green slime coating his arms.

Then, just as slowly, they went over to a puddle of water reflecting the image of his slime-stained face.

Then over to Brachy, who seemed to smile as much as a Brachydios possibly could.

Finally, the last gear in his head clicked into place. While all of this had been conspiring, the patches of mold stuck to his fur had gradually changed color from inert green, to steaming yellow, to boiling-hot red. The sizzling of the red slime could actually be heard as it got hotter and hotter.

When the realization hit, Navirou's pupils shrunk to terrified pinpricks.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–"

His scream was cut off by the sound of the boom.

* * *

 **Monstie #5 – the Great Boar**

" _Awaken!_ "

The final word of the ceremony had been spoken. Lute, Cheval, Lilia, and Navirou watched with bated breath as the egg started to crack and glow, more light pouring from its innards with each passing second. The suspense grew until they could practically _taste_ it.

That is, until the newborn monster actually hatched out. The feeling of awe faded incredibly fast when they saw the snoozing brown lump of fur and tusks slumped where the egg had been.

"A Bulldrome?" Lute muttered, disappointed. "Aw man, what a rip-off."

"Well, what were you expecting?" Cheval questioned matter-of-factly. "The only monsters we ever see around Hakum Village are small, unimpressive ones like Aptonoth and Velociprey. I'm actually surprised you got a Bulldrome."

Nodding, Lilia added, "Yeah, Lute, what were you expecting? A Rathalos or something?"

Of course, Navirou was quick to join in on the teasing. "Lute got his hopes up and thought it would be the egg of a rare monster! But what a surprise, it turned out to be just a common Bulldrome! Naturally, if Lute had trusted in Navirou's heaven-sent navigation skills, Navirou could have led him to a _much_ more impressive egg!

"And that's," the cat finished, striking a pose, " _a Navi-rule_."

"Oh, get real!" Lute yelled with a scoff. "You couldn't lead us to an egg even if you had a map!"

"Navirou is as real as real gets!" he screeched.

"Oh yeah?" challenged Lute.

"Yeah!" Navirou replied.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

" _Oh yeah?!_ "

"YEAH!"

"OH Y– _GAAAAAAAGH_!"

Cheval and Lilia both flinched as their friend was sent tumbling painfully into the dirt. All of his yelling had only served to wake up the sleeping Bulldrome.

And, of course, the first thing the Bulldrome did upon being startled awake… was to charge.

-.-.-.-.-.

The sun was setting on Naubaka Island, marking the last day of Lute's time at the friendly and accommodating village of Felynes. As good as the inhabitants had been to him and his friends, especially Navirou, it was time they moved on with their quest to save the world from the Black Blight.

At present, Lute found himself with a rare moment to himself. The locals were throwing Navirou a farewell party in the center of the village, which Debli and the Numbers were attending as well. The Monsties were resting in the stables that had been generously built just for them, having exhausted themselves in the terrible battle with the blighted Lagiacrus, and Avinia was tending to them.

So, Lute opted to spend his time down at the beach, far away from the village so he could appreciate the peace and quiet while he could.

For a long time, the only sounds in his ears were the lapping of the waves upon the coast and the soft crunch of his footsteps on the sand. His mind was free to wander with this simple, soothing rhythm playing in the background. At least, until someone joined him – he turned around at the addition of a second set of footfalls to the twilight ambience, and found himself meeting Avinia's cool blue eyes.

"Zenny for your thoughts?" the pretty blonde Rider asked, falling into step beside him.

"I'm just thinking about what lies ahead for me," Lute explained without thinking too much of it. "Soon, Navi and I are going to be moving on in search of more Kinship Ore to purify."

"I see," she murmured. "I'll be leaving to continue my own journey as well. And Debli, I assume, will go back to Gildegaran."

"Yeah, but we'll see each other again," laughed Lute. "Riders stick together, you know?"

He turned his head to look at Avinia when she didn't answer, and saw that she was looking away from him with her mouth set in a hard line. He almost chuckled at the sight – she was always acting as though she didn't care, trying to maintain a cool and independent image for reasons that Lute couldn't grasp for the life of him. Like the time he'd caught her cuddling with a bunch of Felynes earlier that week. She denied enjoying any part of it, but he'd seen right through it.

"I thought you were taking care of Frostfang and Bully," he spoke up in an effort to get her to talk, referring to her Barioth and his Bulldrome.

She seemed annoyed at the question. "I was. I'd treated their wounds adequately and found myself with nothing else to do."

"So you decided hanging out with me was more fun than Navirou's going-away party?" Lute joked, grinning at her. "Geez, I didn't know you thought so highly of me!"

"It's not like that," she huffed, sticking her nose up at him. But she was blushing slightly, giving away what she was actually thinking.

The pair of Riders stopped walking and stood in front of the vast ocean spread out before them like a shimmering blue blanket. The light of the setting sun made the water sparkle magnificently. A short distance from the beach, two Felyne-shaped rocks stood atop a tiny spit of land surrounded by water, both of them leaning up against each other like a loving couple.

For a moment, Lute became very aware of Avinia's presence beside him, and swallowed nervously to distract himself from the sudden uncomfortable warmth flooding through his skin.

"Wherever your journey takes you, I want to wish you luck," he spoke sincerely, turning his eyes to the darkening sky.

There was a pause, and then Avinia quietly answered, "Th-Thank you, Lute. And the same to you."

A strange sensation came over Lute just then, a feeling that he hadn't expected to experience in a million years – that of the girl Rider's warm hand twining its fingers around his own. They looked deeply into each other's eyes, and –

"LUTE! WATCH OUT!"

* **THUD** *

"YAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Avinia grunted with surprise as she was roughly shoved to the ground, the breath driven from her lungs. Startled, she bolted into a sitting position, her mouth already open to cry out with worry for Lute. But it never made it past her lips, as the sight of a Bulldrome charging away from her with Lute caught on its tusks abruptly rendered her mute.

"BULLY!" Lute's furious voice floated back to hit her ears. "You're supposed to be resting! BAD Bulldrome! Do you _have_ to charge into me every ten minutes?! BUUUULLYYYYYY!"

After taking only a quick second to brush the sand off of her clothes, Avinia took off in hot pursuit of the rogue boar. Soon, however, she was joined by Debli, who had heard Lute's angry shouts and was now huffing and puffing after him alongside her.

"I thought his Monstie was resting!" Avinia exclaimed as she ran. "What's gotten into him all of a sudden?"

"Huh? You didn't… know?" Debli replied, trying not to sound too out of breath when he spoke. "Bulldromes… will charge… anything that moves. From what I've seen of… them, Lute's Bulldrome… likes to ram him at… every opportunity. It's sort of… a bad habit."

"WHY MUST YOU DO THIS? I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN, BULLY! STOOOOOOOP!"

With a wince inspired by a pang of sympathy for Lute, not even able to imagine how difficult it was for him to own such a disobedient and bad-tempered Monstie, Avinia said, "I can see that. Hurry up, Debli, we need to save him before the wounds the Lagiacrus inflicted on him have the chance to open again."

Somehow, the tubby Rider wannabe managed to shoot her a skeptical look despite his weariness. "Huh… I didn't know… you cared so much for him."

Delivering a piercing glare, Avinia was about to give Debli a piece of her mind when Lute's shouting cut her off.

"I'LL MAKE YOU INTO BACON, YOU HEAR ME?! _BACON!_ "

… She could snap at Debli later. Right now, despite not wanting to admit as much to anyone else, her priorities were elsewhere.

She ended up chasing Bully and Lute up and down the beach until after the sun was long gone.

* * *

 **Monstie #6 – the World Eater**

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone,_ " Lilia intoned to begin the ceremony, " _please, with thou_ – wait, what?!"

The four of them stumbled back, their eyes blown wide open as they witnessed the egg begin to hatch before Lilia had even completed her speech. It shook, cracks scattering all across its surface, and small chipping sounds coming from inside as the newborn fought its way out of its shell. After rocking back and forth for a while, it finally split apart to reveal its occupant.

For the longest time, the three humans did nothing but stare down at the newborn, unsure of what to say.

The baby monster stared back, its expression equally as unreadable as theirs.

At last, Cheval spoke up.

"… That's a Deviljho," he said blandly.

"It is," Lute agreed.

More nervously, the redhead added, "Which is a problem."

Lilia didn't even jump in with her own two zenny, since she was busy trying to process the fact that the Deviljho had already gotten to its feet, pried her bag off of her shoulders, and started eating the edibles inside.

… On the plus side, Lute and Cheval wouldn't have to worry about being force-fed one of her god-awful Energy Drinks for a while.

"So… uh…" Navirou started awkwardly. "Navirou notices that the egg hatched before you could complete the Rite of Kinship."

"… Yeah, so?" replied Lute, still feeling kind of numb.

"Remember that discussion we were having about hatching a Rathalos without a Kinship Stone?" the Felyne continued.

Lute did, indeed, remember. But it still took him a few seconds to understand what Navirou was getting at. Once he did, though, his eyes went wide. So did Cheval's and Lilia's.

"You hatched it without a Kinship Stone," the brunette finally spoke up.

"I did," Lute answered.

Echoing Cheval's earlier statement, Lilia said, "And that's a problem."

-.-.-.-.-.

In the barren forest clearing, the infected Kinship Ore put out an ominous glow that brought a purple light to its surroundings. All of the non-Riders cowered at the edge of the pit behind dead trees or rocks, watching from afar as Cheval and the others worked together to battle the ferocious blighted Diablos.

Lute was there too, watching with horror as the Diablos took down Dan, Genie, and Stone with disgusting ease. A rage-driven Cheval, backed up by Mille and Hyoro, mounted a counterattack on the Triceratops-headed monster. They were successful at first – the Aptonoth and Bulldrome pounded from either side, while the Rathian rained down fireballs and tail strikes from above – but the Diablos quickly struck back, using its sledgehammer-like tail to swat Mille and Hyoro away like flies, and then let loose a sky-shattering screech that knocked Cheval out of the sky.

"Rider, you must go out there and help!" the former Wyverian Chief of Albarax pleaded to Lute, causing him to double-take. "You are the only one that can save us now!"

"I-I don't know…" Lute stammered, starting to sweat from nerves.

"C'mon, kid, your friends are countin' on ya," urged Reverto, giving the boy a frown.

Sighing, Lute supposed he didn't have a choice. He stepped out from behind the tree, resignedly raised his Kinship Stone, and called, "Ride On! Deviljho!"

" **GRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!** "

Instantly, a roar that sounded more like a force of nature than a monster exploded through the air to startle everyone who heard it. A fifty-foot-long green behemoth burst out from between a pair of dead trees – sending wood chips everywhere – and landed in the clearing beside Lute with a tremor that shook the entire forest.

The Diablos, probably because it was blighted, didn't seem too impressed. Instead of backing off, it charged like a Bulldrome gone mad.

Lute climbed up his Monstie's leg and got into position in the saddle, looking for all the world like a beetle sitting atop a crocodile. "Let's go, Jhoey!" he shouted confidently. "We're going to show this blighted Diablos not to mess with us!"

(In his defense, "Jhoey" was not his first choice of nickname. He'd tried Jho, Jhonas, Jhohnny, JhoJho, G.I. Jho, Pillsbury Jhoboy, and Pickle Dinosaur before conceding the naming rights to Lilia, who'd dismissed everything he suggested. Girls.)

Jhoey charged forward with a ferocious roar, rampaging to meet the maddened Diablos head-on. Their skulls smashed together, and the two struggled for dominance. Normally, a Diablos would win a head-smashing contest no problem, but Lute's Deviljho was backed by tons of muscle and was also the most stubborn monster he'd ever met. Slowly but surely, Jhoey started to push the Diablos back.

Emitting another roar, Jhoey braced itself and threw its head upwards, sending the Diablos staggering back. Then, when its foe tried to counterattack with a punishing tail whip, Jhoey simply opened its hungry jaws and clamped down on the muscular appendage. With a tearing sound, the Diablos' sledgehammer tail was ripped right in half, eliciting a pained scream from the victim.

Lute and Jhoey had the upper hand in the battle pretty much from that moment onwards, finally dealing the decisive blow to the Diablos' neck after a minute or so of exchanging blows. The dinosaurian beast planted one of its feet on top of its foe's fallen body and roared to the sky triumphantly.

"Alright, go Lute!" Navirou popped out of hiding with a cheer. "Now you can purify the Kinship Ore, and Navirou will even let you share his Well-Done Steak!"

Lute, who had been smiling with elation and relief from his victory, heard Navirou's enthusiastic words and stiffened.

Had the cat just said… _Well-Done Steak_?

Slowly, Lute turned his horrified eyes to where Navirou was hopping up and down near the edge of the clearing. He was little more than a speck at that distance, but the great big hunk of meat in his right paw could be seen with all too much clarity.

Jhoey turned as well, the words 'Well-Done Steak' echoing in its primitive brute wyvern brain. Deviljhos were certainly not the smartest monsters in the world, but this one had been along humans long enough to learn to associate those three words with a delicious treat.

And sure enough, Jhoey's beady little eyes caught sight of the steak in Navirou's clutches.

Eyes gleaming with avarice, Jhoey lurched forward so fast that Lute nearly fell off the saddle, roaring at the top of its lungs. If the Deviljho could talk, it would be shouting one thing, and one thing only – "MEEEEAAAAAAAAT!"

Navirou _screamed_ and ran the _heck_ out of the clearing, with the multi-ton stomach on legs pursuing closely behind, and Lute dangling from the saddle and yelling in fear.

"NAVIROU DOESN'T WANNA DIE!"

"I DON'T EITHER!"

" **GRAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!** "

A gust of wind pushed a tumbleweed across the landscape as the bystanders, including the now-conscious Riders, watched them go in complete bewilderment.

* * *

 **Monstie #7 – the** **Black Eclipse Wyvern**

"CHAAAAAAAAHH!" the Gore Magala screamed its animalistic scream as it burst out of the volcanic crater and flew into the open air.

Moments later, the volcano exploded in a dramatic eruption, no doubt due to the environment-altering effects of the Black Blight that had corrupted the Kinship Ore there. Lute, Navirou, and Debli had only just managed to get out of the crater alive thanks to the efforts of the Numbers, and of course Gala, Lute's eyeless Monstie.

"Land Gala down there!" Debli called over the sound of the wind, which was intense up at this altitude. "There's a cliff on the side of that mountain over there!"

The Gore Magala only just made it, its wings giving out on the very last stroke and sending all of them tumbling onto the hard rock in a heap. While Navirou crawled out from underneath Debli (Lute did not envy him), the Hakum Village native stumbled to his feet and went to check on his Monstie.

"Hey, you alright, Gala?" he asked softly.

In response, Gala lifted its muzzle up to "look" at his Rider, growling quietly to assure him that it was alright. Fortunately, when Lute looked the Gore Magala over, it seemed as though it was only exhausted from the intense fight with the Mecha Agnaktor in Dr. Manelger's lab.

"Looks like we can finally catch a break from all that madness in the volcano!" cheered Debli, spreading himself out on the rocky ground as if ready to relax.

Unfortunately, the universe wasn't willing to let him relax just yet, as a series of fireballs shot down and impacted violently against the cliff, causing tremors that shook everyone off their feet. With no shortage of drama, Cheval appeared on the back of his Rathian, silhouetted against the setting sun and clad in Azure Rathalos armor.

Gala sprung to its feet, exhaustion forgotten. Those fireballs had proven that Cheval hadn't come with friendly intentions, and the Gore Magala knew they were in danger. Black mist appearing around it, Gala opened its mouth and shrieked a battle challenge.

"I think I spoke too soon!" Debli wailed, and dove behind a convenient rock to cower.

His voice filled with sizzling fury, Cheval swung his sword in Lute's direction and announced hatefully, "Your Gore Magala has become infected with the Black Blight! I've come to destroy it!"

At first, Lute was shocked and horrified beyond belief to see his surrogate brother make his reappearance like some kind of vengeful sky lord and announce his desire to take the life of his most precious companion.

Then, the shock wore off, and he just became confused.

"Wait, Gala? No he's not," he protested.

Cheval faltered, then shook his head and scowled harder to make up for it. "Don't play dumb with me, Lute! That monster is a danger to us all, and it's my duty to kill it!"

Lute turned around to face Gala, whose cape-like wings were fully spread and muscles tensed in a protective stance.

"What are you talking about, Cheval?" he asked, facing his former friend again. "There's no Blight. He's just mad that you made Rathi shoot fireballs at us."

"QUIET!" Cheval bellowed. "If you're so blinded by your kinship with that monster, let me point it out to you – that black mist surrounding him! It's obviously the Black Blight!"

Lute and Navirou took one look at each other and burst out laughing. Debli joined in from his hiding place, although more hesitantly. Their unexpected response completely shook Cheval up.

"What?!" the redhead demanded. "What's so funny?!"

"Th-That's n-not… That's n-not the Black B-Blight!" stammered Lute, trying to rein in his chuckles.

"Yeah, we found out from Lilia and the Scriveners that the Gore Magala naturally produces that stuff," Debli added matter-of-factly, complete with a sage nod. "They called it the Frenzy virus. It's easy to get the two confused."

Cheval blinked, then turned his eyes to Gala. The Gore Magala folded its wingarms back over its body and calmed down, apparently deciding that now was the perfect time for a nap and curled up on the spot, surrounded by a cloud of its virus.

"Just don't breathe any in, you'll be fine," Lute advised, now calm as well. "It's been a while, buddy. Come down and have some dinner with us!"

"Navirou brought donuts that he's willing to share this one time!" volunteered Navirou, pulling a pile of pastries out from absolutely nowhere.

Sweat dripped down Cheval's brow as he looked from human to Felyne to back again, his face stuck in a mixture of astonishment and outrage.

"Donuts? Count me in!" cheered Debli, hopping out from behind the rock to join Lute and Navirou around the beginnings of a campfire. "And I've even brought some Well-Done Steak for the occasion! Cheval, stop sitting like a bump on a Monstie and come eat while it's hot!"

"Hot? We haven't even started cooking yet!" Lute replied, and the two boys chuckled.

Cheval didn't react, still too shocked to comprehend what was going on. He had been so, _so_ sure that the Gore Magala was infected with the Blight… but to hear that it was something he'd never heard of, something completely unrelated to the hated pestilence that had killed his mother…?

"N-No matter!" he attempted to recover his dignity by pointing his sword again at Lute. "I challenge you to a battle! It's time to decide once and for all who's right and who's wrong!"

Rathi, who was still hovering in place, looked questioningly up at her (somewhat insane) Rider. If looks could speak, hers would've said, _So do I just keep hovering here, or…?_

With a shuffling of limbs, Gala crawled over to rest by Lute's side, and used his virus-imbued fire to set the kindling alight. Soon, the Well-Done Steaks were cooking on the spit and the two humans, one Felyne, and one Gore Magala were chowing down and having a grand old time.

"Stop this nonsense!" Cheval yelled, stamping his foot on the saddle with frustration. "Pay attention to me, damnit! I've come here to kill your monster!"

Rathi felt sorry for him and growled sympathetically.

* * *

 **Monstie #8 – the Crimson Colorful Bird**

It was time for the ceremony that would mark the four children as official Riders. Lute, Cheval, Hyoro, and Mille had all received their Kinship Stones straight from Chief Omna, under the watchful eye of Dan the senior Rider. Each one of them had an egg placed in front of them, ready to be hatched by the Rite of Kinship.

Solemnly, Chief Omna stood at the altar in the single beam of sunlight that was cast down upon the temple. He raised his staff reverently, and began to speak the sacred words.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together these Riders with these slumbering creatures._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

The children all raised their Kinship Stones as one, and the eggs started to shudder and crack. One by one, the shells shattered in individual bursts of light. Cheval got a Velocidrome, Hyoro got a Bulldrome, and Mille got an Aptonoth. Nothing special, but they were nevertheless delighted.

Lute looked excitedly upon the egg he had found in the Forbidden Land yesterday – he had, for once, been patient enough to take his friends' advice and wait until the ceremony to hatch it – and gasped with awe when the shell finally broke apart to reveal his new companion.

"A Crimson Qurupeco!" he exclaimed.

Instantly, Dan leapt up as if hit with a Khezu's lightning attack and demanded, "WHAT?! You got a Qurupeco?! Let me see, let me see!"

The older Rider rushed to Lute's side to gaze upon the newly-hatched Monstie. A colorful bird stared back up at the two of them, its scales a bright red while its beak was a pale yellow and its feathers iridescent blue-green.

"YES, now that's top form!" Dan whooped.

Dan, who himself rode a Qurupeco, was quite a fan.

-.-.-.-.-.

Because Dan was so taken with Lute and his Crimson Qurupeco, he had decided that he and _his_ Qurupeco would be the ones to train Lute personally. Stone and Nod, the other seniors, had agreed to Dan's request with some amusement, while Genie just scoffed and waved his hand dismissively.

Today was their fourth training session since the day of the Rite. Lute was already mounted on Crimmy's beautifully-colored back, and Dan on his own Qurupeco's. The two bird wyverns and their Riders were standing in the grassy field face-to-face, while Cheval and Lilia watched from some distance away on a small hill.

"Okay, Lute, are you in top form?" said Dan. "Today, we'll be working on Crimmy's mimic ability. As you already know, the Qurupeco's unique throat sac allows it to imitate the calls of other monsters when it's in a jam."

Uncertainly, Lute rubbed the back of his head. "Uhh… _should_ I know that?"

He got a facepalm from Dan by way of answer, and he blushed with embarrassment. In hindsight, it probably hadn't been worth skipping that particular day of classes.

"Anyway…" the senior Rider grumbled. "Your Crimson Qurupeco can call for aid from other monsters in order to distract your foe long enough for you to counterattack, or flee to fight another day. Like so!"

His Qurupeco raised its head, inflated its bright red pouch, and let out a series of high-pitched shrieks. In moments, a curious pack of Velociprey stampeded through the field in search of the member of their species that had called for help.

Once the raptors were gone, Dan gestured to Lute. "Okay, now you try!"

When Lute gave the order, Crimmy puffed up its throat sac and produced a long, drawn-out howl. Before either of them could ask what monster it had just imitated, the sound of running feet through the grass reached their ears. Seconds later, they found themselves surrounded by a pack of smaller pink raptors.

"J-Jaggi?!" stammered Dan. "How is that possible? There are no Jaggi in Pondry Hills! Shoo, you little pests! Back to Naubaka Island with you!"

A few Smoke Bombs later, they had successfully chased off the Jaggi and gotten back to the lesson. Dan got Lute to demonstrate Crimmy's mimic ability again. The bright red bird wyvern repeated its action from before, and this time the noise it produced was somewhat more familiar – a series of cat-like meows.

At first, there was no response from the local wildlife to Crimmy's odd choice of imitation. However, once Lute and Dan had waited long enough, a cloud of dust became visible on the horizon, coming from the direction of Hakum Village.

"MAKE WAY, MAKE WAY!" Navirou screeched. "NAVIROU HEARD FELYNES TALKING ABOUT DONUTS!"

The deformed Felyne raced right past them without so much as pausing, disappearing into his own cloud of dust as he continued on his path.

On top of the nearby hill, Cheval and Lilia both facepalmed.

"One more time, Lute!" encouraged Dan.

"Crimmy, give it everything you've got!" Lute shouted.

With an affirmative squawk, the Crimson Qurupeco stood as tall as it possibly could and puffed up its throat sac, its voice coming out as the loudest sound it could imagine in order to please its Rider.

" **GRAAAAAAAAGGHH!** " The roar carried far and wide across the plains and into the forest beyond.

Lute and Dan looked puzzled for a second as they tried to figure out what roar that was, but they just couldn't put their fingers on it…

"Hey, why are Cheval and Lilia screaming and waving their arms at us?" Dan asked, suddenly noticing them doing just that.

Scratching his head, Lute replied, "I don't know, I can't hear any–"

The trees at the edge of the nearby forest exploded.

Cue the Deviljho.

-.-.-.-.-.

By the time the day had concluded and the Deviljho had been driven away, the Riders had learned a valuable lesson.

As a law of nature, no monster, regardless of size or status, was immortal. Even the mighty, omnivorous Deviljho had a weakness. There were substances on this vast, mysterious planet that even its bottomless stomach couldn't stomach, so to speak.

And today, they had discovered such a miraculous substance. It was so foul, the Deviljho had taken one taste of it and keeled over, paralyzed with shock. It was so potent that, once the shock had worn off, the Deviljho had booked it back into the forest as fast as its legs could carry it.

This heaven-sent substance was Lilia's homemade Energy Drink.

* * *

 **1\. Starting things off with the ugliest monster.**

 **2\. Continuing with the straight-up worst monster.**

 **3\. A bubble wyvern would be good for a few laughs.**

 **4\. A Brachydios would be a difficult house pet to keep. You'd have to explosion-proof the whole house, somehow…**

 **5\. You know how Bullfangoes always manage to charge you at the worst possible times? Yeah…**

 **6\. Deviljho would be even worse than Brachydios.**

 **7\. It's hard to be edgy when you have no idea what's going on. Cheval's so confused right now, pls help our poor little edgelord.**

 **8\. When a Qurupeco appears, you can be sure a Deviljho is soon to follow. (RIP Jho, cause of death: Lilia's terrible home cooking.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Lute, Meet Your Monstie! (Part 2)**

* * *

 **Monstie #9 – the Herbivore**

Lute, Cheval, Lilia, and Navirou stood around the old egg and held up their faux Kinship Stones (re: ordinary rocks). They proceeded with the ceremony to the best of their ability, based on their limited knowledge of how it was carried out. It was for matters like these that they relied on Lilia, the all-knowing one.

Taking a deep breath, Lute waited for the only female of the group to begin the Rite of Kinship. He focused on the egg in front of him, the egg that was so old that it had been overgrown with moss and lichen. Anyone else would have looked at it and dismissed it, believing with one mere glance that it was long dead and far beyond hatching for any Rider.

But not Lute. He had _felt_ the monster sleeping inside, and inexplicably, he could tell it wanted to hatch at the very moment he'd placed his palms upon it.

As he was thinking this, Lilia began…

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

To the shock of everyone present, especially the resident devil's advocate Navirou, a Nerscylla's web of cracks instantly carved themselves into the eggshell's brittle surface. Glowing light shone from the cracks, and seconds later, the egg had hatched with a bright burst of illumination. Crouched among the remaining shell fragments, still asleep, was…

"An Aptonoth," Lute deadpanned.

The completely unimpressive herbivore gently shook its head to dispel the fog of sleep from its brain and tentatively got to its feet. Standing at its full height, it came up to about Lute's thigh, and it tilted its head up to stare at him with placid eyes. It groaned innocently, seemingly accepting the boy as its parent.

"I-It's… something?" Cheval tried to say something encouraging.

"My luck is the _worst_ ," the unfortunate boy grumbled.

"HA HA HA!" squawked Navirou, his paws holding his belly as he laughed as dramatically as possible. "You drag Navirou and his excellent navigational skills out to the Forbidden Land, where he will inevitably and unfairly share in the scolding that awaits us back at the village, all for a totally unremarkable Apto– OW!"

While he'd been speaking, the baby Aptonoth had wandered over and chomped down on his tail, wondering if it was some kind of delicious plant.

As Navirou moaned and complained, Lilia gently extracted his tail from the Aptonoth's mouth. "It's not so bad, Lute," she reasoned with him. "Aptonoths are herd animals that form strong bonds with whomever rides them. They're stable and easy to ride, and most important of all, they're dependable to a fault!"

"That's great and all," grumbled Lute, "but how am I supposed to become the world's best Rider with an Aptonoth?"

That was when the wild Arzuros showed up, and they were lucky that Dan showed up in time to rescue them.

(Their punishment involved cleaning the Monstie stables for a month. One of the local Riders had a Congalala. Yuck.)

-.-.-.-.-.

Lute was now a Rider, and becoming a Rider meant keeping the peace between people and monsters.

He'd been in the newly-rebuilt Albarax Village for several days now, on the hunt for news of the nefarious Dr. Manelger and the white dragon egg he'd pilfered some time ago. The local Chief had given him a place to stay and made him feel welcome, but he still didn't want to feel as if he was freeloading off of the villagers. So, in the meantime, he decided to take on some quests on the side while he searched for Manelger.

"Hunt a Sand Barioth," the Rider mulled over the words on the quest paper. "Okay, shouldn't be too hard. We'll just keep this a secret from Avinia…"

He got the feeling that the blonde girl wouldn't take too kindly to the fact he'd slain a Barioth, subspecies or not.

And that was how Lute found himself mounting Appa, his Aptonoth, and riding out to the rockier portions of the Trese Desert where the monster sightings had been reported. It wasn't long before the sandy dunes had transformed into solid rocky ground and high canyon walls, with the unmistakable distant roar of the Sand Barioth echoing faintly in Lute's ears.

He found the Sand Barioth prowling its chosen territory deep in the canyons. He did his best to combat its slashing talons and fangs – not to mention its dangerous tail, which was as spiky as it was muscular – but he had trouble steering his Monstie in the tight natural corridors. Eventually, he decided that it was better to lure the Sand Barioth out into the open, where Appa would definitely have more of a chance.

After all, he knew from Avinia that Barioths were designed for climbing sheer cliffs and ambushing their prey. He had nothing to worry about, right?

 _Wrong_. The _Sand_ Barioth was an open-ground hunter, preferring to run its prey down or descend from the sky. Lute was not wrong – Appa the Aptonoth was much better off in wide-open spaces – but he had failed to consider that this applied to the Sand Barioth as well.

"I'm so glad Navirou isn't around to call me out on this!" Lute screamed as he rode the herbivore full tilt across the dunes.

The Sand Barioth was right on Appa's tail, taking massive leaping strides as it chased them through the desert, its greyish-blue fangs gleaming in the sunlight. Even though Appa was plodding along at a feverish pace, it showed no signs of fatigue and was steadily gaining on them.

To any passersby, it would seem as though the young boy on the defenseless herbivore stood no chance.

But Lute was not just any young boy. As he and his Monstie continued to run, he kept an eye on the Sand Barioth's progress, counting under his breath. _One… two… three…_

"CHARGE!" he suddenly screamed, turning Appa around and barreling at the Barioth.

The desert predator was so surprised it instinctively skidded to a halt, allowing the Aptonoth to ram it in its newly-exposed gut. It stumbled, but then recovered, its green eyes starting to glow with rage.

"Uh-oh…" Lute gulped.

The Sand Barioth raised its head, sucked in a powerful breath… and exhaled, the force of its breath becoming an enormous dust devil that immediately turned orange-brown with the copious amounts of sand it pulled from the ground and into its snare.

And the sand wasn't the only thing sucked up by the whirlwind.

Lute held on for dear life as the wind whipped around him and threatened to dislodge his clothes from his body, his entire self from his saddle, or his limbs from his torso (or all of the above). Faintly, he could hear Appa's frightened moaning in his ear, while the deafening sounds of the tornado came from all around him. Everything was shaking, and it was all he could do to squeeze his eyes shut against the merciless wind.

When it stopped, and everything became calm again, Lute suddenly became aware of the sinking sensation in his gut that he hadn't noticed before. He blinked his eyes open cautiously – and then he couldn't close them again.

He was still on Appa's back, but hundreds of feet above the ground. Down below, the great brown sea of the Trese Desert lay sprawled out before him. The blue sky seemed to welcome him with open arms, stretching on and on to infinity in every direction. Gravity seemed to have abandoned them for those precious moments – they floated there, up in the sky, Appa's four limbs swaying back and forth as if rowing in this endless yonder.

It was breathtaking.

Of course, then gravity reasserted itself, and Lute was reminded in a most unceremonious way that Aptonoths could not, in fact, fly. Fortunately, he survived the abrupt descent and subsequent crash-landing.

"Appa, yip yip," he muttered woozily, then collapsed in the sand.

-.-.-.-.-.

Lute's trip into the sky did not go unnoticed.

From their secret hideout within the Trese Desert canyons, Itsy-Bits jumped to attention and ran to Dr. Manelger's side, all in a tizzy.

"Thir!" the buck-toothed assistant lisped, waving his spyglass around excitedly. "I jutht thpotted thomething extraordinary!"

"Hmm? And what might that be, Itsy-Bits?" the mad scientist questioned.

Stammering over his words in his excitement, Itsy-Bits answered, "I-I think it wath that meddlethome Rider, thir! It wath either that or a flying bithon – it dithappeared too quickly for me to get a good look!"

Wrinkling his nose, Manelger replied, "How could you mistake the Rider for a flying bison, you foolish boy? The Rider couldn't possibly have been up in the air by himself, and such a thing doesn't even exist in the first place! I think the desert heat is gettin' to you, m'boy…"

* * *

 **Monstie #10 – the Sky Comet Dragon**

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone._

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

The atmosphere in the forest clearing seemed thick with suspense as the three soon-to-be Riders, plus one mutant Felyne, waited for something to happen. As the seconds ticked by, though, it became increasingly obvious that their waiting was in vain. The mossy egg sat there, inert, with not even the slightest wobble to indicate that life remained within.

Finally, Lute dropped his hand and let his rock fall to the ground. "Well this was stupid…" he mumbled.

"I'm so sorry, Lute," Lilia said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe we could keep looking around?"

"Yeah," Cheval agreed softly. "I mean, we came all this way to the Forbidden Land – we may as well stay until we find something worth bringing back."

Lute smiled at his two supportive friends – the very same people that had been against their coming to the Forbidden Land in the first place, but were willing to stay if it meant helping him find his egg.

"Thanks, guys," he sniffled, feeling close to tears. "That really means a –"

He stopped, cocking his head as he picked up a faint sound that hadn't been there before. It was a quiet, yet high-pitched, whine that seemed to be slowly picking up the longer he listened.

"You hear that?" asked Cheval. He tipped his head as well, trying to locate the source.

Eventually, the whine got loud enough for them to determine where it was coming from. The four of them turned to fix their bewildered stares at the unmoving egg. Collectively, their eyes widened when they saw the egg give a shudder…

…and it exploded, something rocketing from the steaming fragments in a flash of red. Lute found himself toppling over onto his rear from the gust of wind that resulted from the Monstie's overdramatic hatching, while Cheval and Lilia did the same and Navirou went tumbling head over tail. The artificial roar of turbines flaring up filled the air as the hatchling rocketed in circles over the clearing, before finally landing at its Rider's feet.

Its wings swiveled downward, scarlet fire blasting from inside and slowing its descent so it could land safely. The whine of its engines died down, and Lute was left staring at a silver dragon whose wings snapped shut behind it like giant, sword-like claws.

"Whoa," Lute gawked. "You really know how to make an entrance, little guy."

The dragon opened its beak and chirped in reply.

"Lilia?" Cheval spoke the all-knowing one's name, glancing at her questioningly.

The girl's eyes were closed and her head was bowed in deep thought. "… Valfalk," she finally said. "That's what it's called, I think. I heard it from a hunter that came to the village once. But there's nothing about it in the Monsterpedia."

Navirou came stumbling out of the bushes in a daze, leaves and twigs stuck to his fur. Eyeing the Valfalk with distaste, he grumbled, "Navirou gives it credit, it's flashy and all. But if you ask Navirou, no living thing on this great green earth could possibly measure up to Navirou's dazzling good looks. Sadly, this Monstie is just drab in comparison.

"And that's," he struck a pose, " _a Navi-ru_ – AAAAAAAH!"

The Valfalk did not take kindly to the insult, and made its displeasure known at a speed of eighty miles per hour. It and Navirou vanished from sight in a flash of red, and the sound of a tree being shattered into kindling came from deeper in the forest.

Cheval winced. "… Ouch."

-.-.-.-.-.

Deep in the Dovan Volcano, the Mecha Agnaktor's beak clacked as it finished melting the Numbers' homemade tank into a pile of molten scrap. The six deformed Felynes managed to get out with their lives, only to have to endure Dr. Manelger's mocking laughter.

"You failures simply do not know when to quit!" the mad scientist gloated. "Nothing can stand up to my magnificent Mecha Agnaktor."

He hit a button on his control pad for emphasis, and the Mecha Agnaktor lifted its head and screamed. And boy, could it scream. Lute had never seen an Agnaktor before, and he was going to write an addendum in the Monsterpedia about how it sounded simultaneously like nails on a chalkboard and someone being murdered.

But first, he had to get out of the volcano alive, and stop Dr. Manelger from using the Kinship Ore for evil while he was at it.

Fortunately, he had the perfect solution. He raised his Kinship Stone and yelled, "Ride On! Valfalk!"

From somewhere above the volcano's crater, the sound of Lute's Monstie jetting overhead went from noticeable to extremely apparent as it blasted through the ceiling and came to a stop directly between Lute and Manelger. Leftover sparks of energy spat from its wings as it spread them with a keening shriek. "SHRIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"Oh my," Dr. Manelger chuckled, vaguely impressed. "Lute, m'boy, if you won't let me have your Kinship Stone, at least let me use this wondrous creature for my research! There's so much knowledge to be gained from studying it!"

"Stow it, Doctor!" the boy shot back, and mounted his Monstie with one fluid motion. "Val, let's show this creep the power of our kinship!"

He jumped aboard, and Val revved up its wings with another burst of red sparks. The vents on its chest glowed brightly as it sucked in air, the inhale sounding like a rising whine that reached its crescendo right when they blasted off.

Over the rush of wind in his face and the roar of Val's turbines, Lute vaguely heard Debli's faraway voice floating on the thick volcanic air to reach his ears. The tubby Rider-in-training had his hands cupped on either side of his mouth, and he was yelling… something about ore. At least that was what Lute caught. The Kinship Ore?

He glanced up at the ceiling of the lava-filled chamber and gasped with horror. The Black Blight was overtaking the cool blue crystal even as he watched, turning it a malevolent black-purple and shrouding the area in fog. Down below, the Mecha Agnaktor began to swirl with the Black Blight, and it thrashed its body with sudden agitation as the corruption took over its mind.

Val circled the cavern, moving through the air with a dull roar as Lute searched for an opening to strike. The Mecha Agnaktor was shedding pieces of Manelger's controlling armor as the Black Blight turned it aggressive, and so it would reveal a weak spot sooner or later. It screamed loudly, sending Dr. Manelger and Itsy-Bits running for the exit in a panic, and the inside of its beak started to glow white-hot.

Debli and the Numbers took cover as the blighted Agnaktor unleashed its dreaded lava-beam, which tore apart the pillars that rose up from the lava in various places around the cave. Val swerved around it, the intense light of the beam playing off of its silvery scales and making it appear blinding for a quick instant.

Frustrated, the Agnaktor screamed again and this time dove into the lava pool. For a split second before it dove, Lute could see its hide softening as it heated up, making it vulnerable. Of course, he and Val could hardly dive straight into molten rock like the Agnaktor could, so he'd have to wait until it surfaced…

Suddenly, the lava exploded outward directly in front of him, and the Agnaktor came soaring up to intercept the boy and his elder dragon mount. Lute's eyes widened with panic as his vision was abruptly filled by the form of the glowing orange-yellow serpent, its beak sizzling again as it prepared another lava-beam.

"Val, go!" he cried.

"SHRIIIIIIIII!" the Valfalk screeched, and swerved to avoid the Agnaktor – only to perform a U-turn and flare its engines.

The speed boost sent them slamming into the Agnaktor's flank an instant later, moving so fast that it didn't even have time to scream with pain before the force of Val's rocket-powered tackle sent all three of them straight into a solid rock wall. There was a crunch as leviathan met stone – that is, the crunch of stone shattering from the sheer force of impact.

The force of impact also made the volcano shake. Debli and the Numbers wouldn't have thought of that as unusual… except for the fact it was _still_ shaking.

"Oh no," Debli gulped, the realization hitting him like a Bulldrome.

-.-.-.-.-.

The Kinship Ore was _technically_ purified after the eruption. There was no more Black Blight, at least…

"No more Black Blight?!" Avinia shouted, throwing down the bandages she'd been using to wrap Lute's splint(s). "There's no more _Kinship Ore_ , you idiot!"

Lute tried to laugh, but his many broken bones prevented him from doing that without a spike of pain. "Worth it…!" he gasped out.

Glancing up at its Rider in a moment of concern for him, Val quickly returned to the enormous meal they'd retrieved from the lava flow and dragged up the cliff to eat in safety. It wasn't often one got to sample boiled Agnaktor, after all.

* * *

 **Monstie #11 – the Water Wyvern**

" _Awaken!_ " cried Lilia, finishing the unofficial rite.

Everyone stepped back in surprise when the egg began to glow and shudder. An egg so old that lichen had nearly overtaken it – who would have thought it was still alive after so long? They stared in awe as pure white light shone through the cracks, and gasped as the shell shattered into pieces that scattered all around the ancient shrine. As the light faded, all that was left on the stone steps was a…

"Plesioth?" Cheval spoke its name as a question, tilting his head in confusion. "But we're nowhere near the water…"

Indeed, the infant beast that lay curled up in slumber was none other than the piscine wyvern itself. The Plesioth's orange-and-blue scales shimmered beautifully in the dappled light that peeked through the gaps in the trees, just like a fish's. Its wings were shaped more like fins, and it had more fins adorning its head, back, and tail.

"I doubt a monster would use this area as a nest," Lilia reasoned. "Someone probably put it here as an offering or something."

"Navirou accepts the offer!" the cat himself volunteered. "It's been a while since Navirou has had seafood!"

He started to make his way hungrily to the baby Plesioth, which was unaware of the soon-to-be predator, when Lute intervened by picking up the deformed Felyne by the scruff of the neck.

"You're not eating my Monstie!" he yelled. "You touch one scale on its body and I swear I'll make sure you never lay eyes on a donut again!"

All the noise had woken the Plesioth up, and it raised its shark-like head to blink pupil-less eyes at the group in front of it. The first thing it saw was Lute dangling Navirou in front of it, and its primitive fish brain came to the conclusion that this was its parent presenting it with food. It snapped its little jaws with a squeak, its teeth coming just short of Navirou's tail.

"Or maybe I should just feed _you_ to _it_ ," joked Lute. "Isn't that right, Plessy? Feel like a bite, little guy?"

In stark contrast to Cheval's and Lilia's good-natured laughter, Navirou shrieked in horror as Lute intentionally dipped him closer to Plessy's mouth. "NO! NOT THE TAIL! NAVIROU WILL BE GOOD! HE SWEARS ON HIS DONUTS!"

Chuckling, Lute gently let Navirou down on the shrine, out of reach of the hungry Plesioth. Indignantly, Plessy squealed and got to its unsteady feet, wobbling on its gangly legs as it tried to reach its meal. Before it could get to Navirou, though, it stumbled clumsily. It managed to save itself at the last second, its hip briefly jutting out in its last-second bid to steady itself.

At the same time, Navirou suddenly went rolling off the side of the shrine with a scream. The odd behavior provoked looks of confusion from the three humans.

"What was that about?" Lute asked.

"Maybe he tripped," suggested Cheval. "Or a gust of wind…"

-.-.-.-.-.

The blighted Nargacuga was back with a vengeance, recognition visible in its cold eyes as it once again met face-to-face with the young Riders. The only difference was that this time, they were fighting it on its own turf – in the center of the circular cliffside at the edge of the forest was the blackened Kinship Ore, rising up like a grim obelisk as the source of the notorious Black Blight. The blight itself was everywhere, manifesting around the giant gemstone as a dark purple fog.

Mille and Hyoro were down, with Cheval and Lute the only ones still standing. Their Rathian and Plesioth were starting to pant exhaustedly from all the fighting they'd been doing, and yet the Nargacuga didn't even look tired yet. At one point, Cheval had gotten what looked like the final blow in on the blighted wyvern – Rathi had activated her Kinship Skill, the devastating Scorching Slice, and the Nargacuga had went down like a pile of bricks. But even after that, it wasn't over, as its proximity to the corrupted Kinship Ore had healed its wounds and flooded its limbs with rejuvenated strength.

Lute's eyes widened with pure horror as he saw the cat-like beast seemingly come back from the brink of death to pounce on Cheval and Rathi. They were sent tumbling to the ground with a lash of its tail, and now stirred only slightly in the dark grip of unconsciousness.

There was no choice, Lute realized. If they injured it, the Black Blight would ensure it rose again. No, they would have to kill it in one fell swoop. Not only would such a thing be difficult, but slaying a monster was a grim task that Lute did not feel comfortable with.

Looking at the madness in the Nargacuga's malevolent eyes, though, and remembering the savagery with which it had attacked the village the other day, Lute also realized that he had no choice but to do the deed. Otherwise, the Nargacuga would live to terrorize Hakum Village another day, and more people would die.

"Come on, Plessy!" he yelled. "Our friends are depending on us to stop the Black Blight! Use your breath!"

Rearing its head back, Plessy let out a screech as a jet of water shot from the back of its throat to nail the Nargacuga right in the side of the head. Just as it was creeping up on Cheval and Rathi to finish them off, the high-pressure blast smacked into it with an impact that probably stung to high heaven. It squealed and backed off, then turned its attention to Lute and Plessy with its eyes glowing so brightly with rage that they shone clearly through the purple haze enveloping the cliff.

" **MRREEEEEOOOOWWWW!** " the pseudowyvern yowled with such force that a curtain of dirt was swept off the ground.

Lute shouted to his Monstie, "It's going to attack! Dodge its strikes!"

Sure enough, the Nargacuga bounded forward while slashing out with the razor-sharp edge of its wing. With surprising nimbleness considering its aquatic origins, Plessy managed to jump out of the way of each attempt. When the Nargacuga's tail came down with the intention of crushing the Monstie into the dirt, Plessy flopped onto its belly and swiftly slithered away, while the muscular appendage harmlessly plowed a trench into the ground.

But the Nargacuga was fast, and just as Plessy was regaining its footing, it pulled out the tail-spin. It moved so fast that the movement of its tail was audible as it swept through the air and smacked the Plesioth aside like so much trash. Lute bounced off of the ground before sliding to a painful halt on his back, and his Monstie landed beside him with a squeak of pain.

"O-Okay… that's it!" Lute seethed, clutching his side and wincing as he staggered back onto his feet. "Plessy, it's time for our Kinship Skill!"

In answer, the piscine wyvern got up as well and allowed its Rider to mount it once more. It spread its wings and raised its head with a challenging screech at the same time Lute thrust his fist above his head, his Kinship Stone beginning to shine like a blue star.

"Eat this, Nargacuga!" the boy declared. "LEGENDARY HIP CHECK!"

-.-.-.-.-.

Far away from the Forbidden Land, Hakum Village was going about its business when disaster struck.

The shockwave came out of nowhere, manifesting as a lightning-fast wall of displaced air that swept through like a tidal wave. Roofs were torn away in an instant, walls collapsed in on themselves, and entire fields of crops were torn out by the roots. It was immediate chaos. The screaming of the villagers could be heard all the way to the Mt. Pondry Caves as they reacted with shock and terror to the sudden natural disaster.

Even though it was all over in a mere second, Hakum Village was left in complete shambles by the time it ended.

Chief Omna stood in front of his hut – now reduced to rubble – and stared blankly ahead as he watched Dan struggle to pull one of the Rathalos wing-like windmill blades out from the wall of the Monstie stables.

"I should never have let that boy hatch that Plesioth," he noted calmly.

Then a Nargacuga corpse came falling down from nowhere to flatten Dan, as well as an entire wall of the stables.

"But," the old Wyverian added, more cheerfully, "at least they stopped the blight!"

A reaching hand emerged from underneath the black wyvern's dead body. "I'm no longer in top form…!"

* * *

 **Monstie #12 – the Queen of the Land**

Trembling with excitement, and yet making sure to be extra-careful, Lute entered the house he sometimes shared with Cheval and sat down in one of the chairs at the dining table. He placed the heavy egg carefully on his lap and stroked its smooth shell, smiling down at it fondly.

Mrs. Vlau, who had been working at the stove when Lute came in, turned away from her work and gave him a smile in greeting. "Lute, I wasn't expecting you so early. Dinner won't be for a while yet."

"That's okay," he told Cheval's mother. "I wanted to find a safe place to put this egg before I hatched it."

The red-haired woman only noticed the object sitting in his lap right as he mentioned it, and she came around the table to see it. Kneeling down so that she could get a close look. She, too, reached out with a hand to feel its shell and found herself smiling at the contact.

"Where did you find it, Lute?" Vlau asked.

"Cheval and the other Riders encountered a Rathian in the woods," he explained. "Me and my Velocidrome helped as best we could, but we got knocked into the bushes where we found the egg. The Rathian must have been trying to guard it."

He lifted the egg up to his eye level, admiring its rich green coloration marked with streaks of deep red. A strange, warm feeling thrummed from the egg almost like a heartbeat. Lute was vividly reminded of what Cheval had said many weeks ago when they'd found that old Rathalos egg by the shrine – his surrogate brother had insisted that the Rathalos had wanted to hatch by his hand, as though he could sense the Monstie's feelings.

"You know," Vlau said to him, her tone as warm and motherly as it always was, "you could hatch this egg and make it your Monstie, if you wished."

Lute did a double-take. Surprisingly, this hadn't crossed his mind. "I-I could? But I already have Velocidrome…"

"You found the egg, did you not?" she chided him, lightly. "Of course it's yours to hatch."

An unquestionable, excited thrill spread through Lute's body and made his heart quicken. Yes, now that he thought about it, he had heard of other Riders that rode more than one Monstie. And if he hatched this egg, he'd have a _Rathian_ – it was something that a child raised in the peaceful Pondry Hills could usually only dream of.

And Mrs. Vlau had one more piece of advice, given to him with a mix of amusement and her usual affection. "If Cheval named his Rathalos Ratha, then you should name that Rathian Rathi."

The fond expression returned to Lute's face as he held the warm egg close to him once more. "Rathi…" he murmured the name. "Will you be my Monstie?"

Something inside him told him that the egg was saying yes.

-.-.-.-.-.

There were perks to owning a wyvern powerful enough to be called the Queen of the Land.

Lute looked back on his preteen days with Rathi quite fondly. He'd battled blighted monsters and saved many villages, explored the world, and even played a part in stopping the apocalypse. He'd helped Cheval realize that, despite the loved ones he'd lost and the hardships he'd endured, he and Ratha were still connected by the power of kinship. The redhead and his Rathalos had brought a new era of peace to the world, and it couldn't have been done without Lute and Rathi, forever their supporters no matter how far into the darkness they fell.

Yes indeed, owning a Rathian had been beneficial. However, with perks came drawbacks. And one of the more unexpected drawbacks turned out to be Rathi's surprisingly troublesome parental instinct.

At that very moment, the now twenty-two-year-old Lute found himself standing frozen in place before his oldest companion, unable to deny the thrill of fear prickling down his spine. Rathi was curled up in a corner of the stables that was bathed in moonlight, her poisonous tail raised threateningly at her Rider. Her amber eyes were currently set in a glare that could've melted a hole through stone. Resting in the curve of Rathi's neck was little Ryuto, sucking his thumb in his sleep as if he was safe in his crib instead of being held hostage by a deluded Monstie.

However, Lute had once faced down a starving, blighted Deviljho in his youth, and may the gods be damned if he was going to let himself be intimidated by an undersized Rathian. Even if he felt kind of stupid, confronting her in his sleepwear after midnight.

"Come on, Rathi, now you're just being ridiculous," he scolded her. "It's bad enough you insist on kidnapping Ryuto and trying to feed him dead Velociprey during the day – now you've decided this needs to happen at night, too?"

Rathi growled fiercely at her Rider, now repositioning her tail so that it was wrapped protectively around herself and her blissfully unaware captive.

"He's _my_ son, not yours," Lute snapped. He was rapidly losing patience with this entire ridiculous situation, especially the part where he was standing in the freezing-cold stables wearing nothing but his boxers. "Don't you and Ratha have any hatchlings of your own you could be guarding?"

Now Rathi's growls were starting to sound more personal in nature, like _Hey, keep my mate out of this_.

Lute wasn't getting anywhere by being stern, and for the love of the gods, his dignity was already at an all-time low. It was too late to feel shame in switching tactics from yelling to begging, and so he dropped to his knees and begged with gusto.

"Don't you know what Avinia's going to do to me when she wakes up tomorrow morning and finds Ryuto gone?" he pleaded. "We might be married but the whole 'till death do us part' thing is going to happen _much_ sooner if she thinks I'm responsible for losing him! Now _please_ , can I have _my freaking son back_?!"

For a moment, the glare in Rathi's eyes turned into a more speculative look, and it seemed as though she was considering Lute's words. Then the moment passed, and she gave him an even harsher growl than before, her tail now back to being pointed threateningly at him.

It was midnight.

Lute was tired, both from lack of sleep and from having to put up with this preposterous behavior.

He was more scared of his wife than of his fire-breathing venomous wyvern.

So, wrestling Rathi to the ground in an attempt to get his son back was a completely reasonable solution. It was a long and dirty struggle, but he eventually stood victorious with his son (and more than a few poisonous barbs) in his arms. The feeling of pure elation and relief he got from the simple act of putting Ryuto to bed and kissing his head goodnight was well worth the venom coursing painfully through his system.

Granted, he still had to endure an earful from Avinia in the morning, but at least it was while she treated his wounds rather than caused them.

* * *

 **Monstie #13 – the Gold Lion**

The forest clearing was silent as Lute, Cheval, and Lilia proceeded with their impromptu Rite of Kinship, the last member of the group being the only one to speak the sacred words.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone,_

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

It was with astonishment that the future Riders watched the egg shudder and crack open, its interior glowing brightly with the promise of a truly amazing prize within. When the shell finally shattered to pieces, the monster revealed was a mass of black fur with a tail and horns. It raised its rather large forearms and rubbed at its eyes groggily, inadvertently making itself look undeniably cute in the process.

"Cool, a fanged beast!" enthused Lute, taking in his new Monstie with wide eyes.

"And not just any fanged beast!" added Lilia, the only one more excited than he was. "I never thought I'd get to see one for myself! They're incredibly rare according to the Monsterpedia!"

Looking at her questioningly, Cheval inquired, "Okay, so what is it? I think it looks kind of like a Congalala, sort of… hopefully this one doesn't have stomach problems…"

Navirou tried to put in his two zenny, but all that came out of his mouth was a choking sound as the baby monster gave him a one-armed hug around the neck and playfully started pulling his tail.

"Honestly, don't you ever pay attention in class?" the green-eyed girl huffed to the two boys, then recited a passage from the Monsterpedia to jog their memories. " _Ultra-aggressive fanged beasts. Widely regarded as the pinnacle in unparalleled physical prowess._ Does that ring a bell?"

It did indeed, as it was quite hard to forget such a colorful description and masterful use of hyperbole.

"Oh, I know!" Lute chirped. "I got a Rajang!"

Eyes wide with new understanding, Cheval watched the newborn Rajang continue to innocently abuse Navirou. But aside from how it seemed to effortlessly be keeping the mutant Felyne from escaping its grasp, something didn't seem to add up to the redheaded boy.

"Um…" he spoke up. "I recognize it now, but… that's really a Rajang? 'Ultra-aggressive' and 'unparalleled physical prowess'?"

Perhaps subconsciously sensing doubt in its presence, the Rajang finally had enough of Navirou's attempts to resist snuggling and demonstrated its 'prowess' by punching Navirou across the clearing and into a tree. The unfortunate woody plant snapped in half, its trunk now splintered beyond repair.

"Alright, you've convinced me," Cheval said unsteadily, feeling somewhat numb.

"Man, I'd hate to see it when it gets enraged…" Lute mused. He eyed the demolished tree with some trepidation.

The Rajang mewled cutely at its Rider, completely oblivious to how much it had unnerved him.

"Actually, the Rajang has no rage mode at all," Lilia informed her friend matter-of-factly. "There's no record of a Rajang ever getting enraged. Well, unless that means that no-one who ever saw its rage mode just didn't live to tell of it…"

Like that helped Lute at all. He decided to just air on the side of caution and never make his Monstie angry. Ever.

-.-.-.-.-.

Lute jumped maybe three feet when the cage dropped down from the ceiling to CLANG against the stone floor of the secret lab. Once the shock wore off, he found himself seething with anger over how the mad scientist he'd been chasing had managed to imprison him in one fell swoop.

"Alright, that's it!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, producing a series of echoes through the cavern. "Come out and let me go right now!"

The unpleasantly familiar figures of Dr. Manelger and Itsy-Bits stepped out from behind some crates, both of them completely unconcerned with his threats.

"Thir, it worked perfectly, like you thaid it would!" the scrawny assistant lisped.

"Of course it did, Itsy-Bits," Dr. Manelger replied patiently. "Not the most elaborate trap I've ever designed, but my genius makes up for that. Now Lute, m'boy," he now addressed his captive, "I'm afraid I can't let you go until you agree to do me a small favor in return."

"Like I'll ever help jerks like you!" the furious boy screamed. It made him feel better, and with any luck, it'd alert Debli and Navirou to his location.

As if Lute hadn't spoken at all, Dr. Manelger launched into a description of his latest research, saying that he needed to 'borrow' Lute's Kinship Stone in order to perfect his mechanized monster slaves and bring humanity closer to a world where they lived free of the fear of monsters, or something like that. It was all completely preposterous, from Lute's point of view, not to mention completely amoral. Who raised this guy? Like, seriously?!

"If you think I'm just going to hand over my Kinship Stone, then you really are stupid!" he snapped as the shifty doctor came closer.

"You aren't too bright either, m'boy, if for some reason you think you have a choice in the matter," Manelger snickered. He reached out with a gold glove and prompted, "Now if you please, hand it over like a good boy."

Snarling, Lute protectively pulled his arm back, refusing to comply. Aside from the obvious fact that Dr. Manelger was a delusional freak that made trouble wherever he went and was planning on making even more, the Kinship Stone was a sacred item and the most precious possession of any Rider. No way Lute would relinquish it, not even if Manelger was a perfectly normal old man.

"Lute!" came the much-welcome cry, and Lute whipped around to see Navirou, Debli, and his Monstie Raja coming down the tunnel.

The trio consisting of a human, Felyne, and Rajang skidded to a halt when they saw the cage that now surrounded Lute. Navirou in particular looked stricken, and when Manelger reached through the bars to grab Lute's wrist, his shock evaporated to be replaced with pure fury.

" _Leave Navirou's friend Lute_ _ **aloooooooone**_ _!_ " the Felyne's voice came out distorted and inhuman as his body exploded with electricity. Transformed into a blue-and-yellow living dynamo, Navirou rushed forward on all fours and slammed into Dr. Manelger hard enough to make him lose his grip and stumbled backwards.

Everyone's eyes were fixated on Navirou's dramatic and unexpected display of power, so much so that no-one noticed that Raja seemed more fixated than anyone else.

"I knew I'd theen that Felyne before!" Itsy-Bits gasped, dropping his fist into his palm as the realization hit him. "Dr. Manelger, that'th one of the Numberth!"

But before Manelger could reply, Navirou's newfound power fizzled out, and he dropped exhaustedly to his knees. Right at that moment, Raja leapt forward and landed between the bad guys and the cage. It pounded its fists on the ground in a show of primal strength and growled lowly, threatening to mess them up but good if they made another move toward Lute or Navirou.

"Hmm, a troublesome Monstie, eh?" mused Manelger, motioning for Itsy-Bits to bring him something. "Well if it's a fight you want, I have no problems with using force to get that Kinship Stone!"

He pressed a button on the control panel Itsy-Bits handed to him, and a Mecha Uragaan crashed through the wall of the lab with its steel-enhanced chin. The enslaved brute wyvern howled and lumbered forward to crush the intruders into a fine paste.

Suddenly, Raja jumped up onto its hind legs and raised its arms above its head, a gold aura briefly flashing into existence around it as it unlocked its hidden enraged state. Within the space of a second, the fur on its back had stood up like a lion's mane and turned bright yellow, a color mirrored by stripes on its arms and hindquarters. The Rajang roared as it underwent its transformation, and the air around it abruptly took on the distinct scent of ozone – a definite warning that it was exerting control over the Thunder element.

"Raja!" Lute cried joyfully.

"Wh-What's this?!" stammered Dr. Manelger. "There's no scientific proof of Rajang having a rage mode!"

"Yeah, well science _this_ , jerks!" taunted Debli. "Raja, use your breath attack!"

Its roar becoming more high-pitched than anyone had ever heard it, Raja opened its mouth to bring a concentrated beam of lightning surging forth. The elemental energy plowed straight into the Mecha Uragaan and sent the ten-ton beast flying into a wall, crushing every piece of machinery in its path and filling the chamber with thick dust.

"I-Itsy-Bits!" Manelger coughed out. "G-Give me the scanner we developed! This monster is more powerful than any I've ever seen!"

His assistant retrieved the device, which had miraculously not been flattened by the Mecha Uragaan's impromptu flying lesson. Fearfully, the beady-eyed boy quavered, "Wh-What d-doeth it thay about that Rajang'th power level, thir?!"

Manelger was so horrified by the readings he got from the scanner that he held it at arm's length, fearfully proclaiming, " _It's over NINE THOUSAND!_ "

That was when Raja picked up the cage effortlessly and flung it at the two villains, who could do nothing but scream and babble and wave their arms in a panic before it collided with them in a big cloud of dust.

Free now thanks to his Monstie's unexpected powers, Lute picked up the tired Navirou and grinned to Debli, "Just wait until Lilia and the Scriveners hear about _this_!"

-.-.-.-.-.

Lilia and the Scriveners were quite shocked, pardon the pun.

But not quite as shocked as the members of the Hunter's Guild when Lute and Raja delivered an unconscious Manelger and Itsy-Bits to them in an upturned metal cage.

* * *

 **Monstie #14 – the Nocturnal Bird**

When Lilia finished the Rite of Kinship, none of them expected it to actually work. They stood there in shock as a web of cracks scattered across the egg's surface, the cracks themselves beginning to glow with intense light. It shuddered briefly, and then again…

…and then it stopped. No more shaking, no more glowing. The egg had come to a complete standstill. It was like whatever was inside of it had suddenly decided that nope, it didn't want to come out after all.

"Aw come on!" complained Lute, indignant. "You can't just leave us in suspense like that! Hatch already!"

"Don't be that way, Lute," Lilia scolded lightly. "It'll hatch when it's ready."

"Maybe it was the ritual," Cheval suggested, rather pessimistically. "We must have done something wrong after all…"

Navirou was about to add the usual scathing remark in his nails-on-a-chalkboard voice when a sharp *CRACK* interrupted him. The egg had given a short burst of energy and hopped on the spot. The sudden movement caused the top part to briefly jump up before landing back on top like the lid of a tea pot. This unexpected development drew the surprised and curious stares of the young soon-to-be Riders.

"It's alive after all…" murmured Cheval.

"Navirou knew it!" the cat claimed, to the irritation of pretty much everyone else. "Of course, Navirou's flawless intuition told him that the egg was the real deal. Lute had nothing to worry about with…"

A pair of ominous red eyes suddenly glinted from the cracks in the eggshell, and Navirou froze when he saw the gaze leveled directly at him.

"U-Uh… wh-why is it looking at Navirou like that?" he stammered nervously. "N-Navirou means… of _c-course_ it's l-looking at Navirou! H-He is, after all, so smooth and handsome –"

Suddenly, the egg's cracked shell blew apart into fragments as the baby monster charged out with a screech, wings flapping madly as it ran at Navirou with its beak open hungrily. Quick as a flash, Lilia swooped in and grabbed the terrified Felyne away while Lute went to confront his new Monstie.

Upon seeing him planted in its path, the bird wyvern gazed up at him intensely. Lute stared down at it in return, fascinated by it. It was like no monster he'd ever seen, covered in blue and gold feathers with two long ear tufts and entrancing red eyes. The eerie calmness with which it regarded him was a stark contrast to the desperate hunger with which it had pursued Navirou.

Maybe it had thought Navirou was a giant mouse or something? Lute could see it.

As was the norm with monsters they'd never seen before, Lute and Cheval turned to Lilia, and the girl didn't disappoint them. "It's a Malfestio. They're supposed to be very intelligent monsters that confuse hunters with their unusual abilities. I don't know how you'd raise one as a Monstie… but it looks like it's already pretty taken with Lute."

Indeed, the owl was blinking at its new Rider with an unreadable expression, as if sizing him up or trying to figure him out. Lute decided to take its wonder as a compliment and kneeled down to greet it, smiling openly.

"I'm so glad to meet you!" he greeted the Malfestio, reaching out to stroke its feathery head. "You're going to be my Monstie! And I'll call you… Malfie."

Malfie seemed to like it, and hooted its approval.

-.-.-.-.-.

It was midnight, and it should have been quite dark in Hakum Village, as the sun had long ago retired and left the moon to take over its celestial duties for the night. However, while darkness had fallen over the mountains the villagers called home, the village itself had yet to go dark.

The Black Blight had been dispelled and the world had been saved, and the residents of Hakum were throwing their heroic Rider saviors a huge party.

It was a small village, but they went all out. Paper lanterns were strung up, torches were burning, and the air was saturated with the smell of Well-Done Steaks and Mosswine kebabs sizzling on the grill. Even at this hour, the streets were filled with adults conversing happily with one another and children chasing each other. Even the Riders and their Monsties were out and about, content to have one night where they could relax and socialize without having to worry about wild monsters or infected Kinship Ore.

"Wow, your Chief is so cool for throwing us a huge party like this!" exclaimed Debli, placing his hands behind his head as he, Lute, and Cheval walked through the lively village.

"I know, right?" Lute agreed. "I mean, I know we saved the world and everything, but I wasn't expecting a celebration in our honor!"

"Yeah, neither was I," added Cheval, more demurely. "Not after everything I've done, anyway…"

"Hey, don't get like that now!" his surrogate brother wrapped an arm around his shoulders and grinned. "What's done is done, and you're an awesome rider that helped beat the Makili Pietru, so it's time to stop wallowing in the past and have some fun! Come on, I'll race you to the food! I wanna eat a whole Gargwa leg!"

Considering that Gargwa legs were drumsticks the size of a Hammer, Cheval had to bite back the laughter forming on his tongue as he chased after the brown-haired boy, with Debli close behind.

The refreshments were all set up in the clearing next to the Monstie stables, where it was slightly less crowded. With the clearing ringed with paper lanterns dangling overhead and occupied by the other Riders and their chosen mounts, it was a festive yet comforting scene. Lute broke through the crowd and rushed toward the buffet table, which was absolutely massive and piled high with pretty much every kind of meat that could be found around Hakum Village. Cheval and Debli didn't follow their hungry friend – at least not right away, preferring to head for the stables and check up on Rathi and The Great Poogie.

Lute skidded to a halt and leaned over the table, delightedly looking back and forth between the different platters and wondering what he should eat first. Grinning delightedly, he reached out and grabbed a Gargwa leg in each hand, excited at the prospect of being able to eat all he wanted. He exuberantly bit down on one of them, inwardly gushing at the juicy meat filling his mouth, and got ready to shout "So tasty!" to the whole world…

…but the feeling of no longer having a second Gargwa leg brought him crashing back to reality. He looked up in confusion, and he immediately spotted a blue-feathered bird wyvern gliding silently over to the fence at the edge of the clearing.

Scowling, Lute reached Malfie just as the Malfestio gulped its treat down. "What's the deal, Malfie?!" he protested, red in the face with anger. "That was obviously mine!"

The intelligent Monstie gave him a skeptical look. _Oh please,_ its intense red-eyed gaze seemed to say. _You couldn't even finish one of those, let alone two._

"You don't know that!" Lute yelled, stomping his foot. "And anyway, that doesn't give you the right to steal!"

Another skeptical look from Malfie. _Someone has to look out for your lack of self-control._

"Who are you, my mother?!" he shouted, flushing red with outrage.

 _I should be,_ the Malfestio silently communicated.

Lute was about to give his willful and patronizing Monstie a piece of his mind when a soft, familiar laugh reached his ears.

"Sometimes I wonder who's in charge between the two of you – you or Malfie," Avinia smiled at them, her eyes crinkling with amusement at their argument.

Whatever Lute was going to say to Malfie abruptly died in his throat at the sight of the pretty blonde girl, and her smile made him turn red for a completely different reason.

"Oh, h-hi, Avinia," he stammered out a greeting, suddenly finding his boots a very interesting subject for visual inspection. "I-I didn't realize you'd be here – not that that's bad! It's, you know, a very pleasant surprise!"

Malfie rolled its eyes at him behind his back. _You are hopeless._

Avinia's cheeks blushed a subtle shade of pink as she looked away almost shyly, replying, "I heard about your heroic deeds at the Ruins of Redan. I decided to come to congratulate you… and, um, to say thanks for saving the world."

"Y-Yeah…" Lute chuckled, feeling awkward. "Well, you know… it's the only one we've got, wouldn't want it gone or anything, right?"

"Right…" she replied, and they shared a sad little laugh at that.

Now Malfie was sighing and burying its face in its wing. _If anyone asks, I don't know these two._

An uncomfortable silence descended between the two of them. Lute and Avinia shuffled their feet, glanced at everything but each other, and felt like they should say something but didn't have the nerve, letting the silence stretch further on.

Finally, it was actually Lute who broke it. "So… um… can I tell you something?"

"Sure, anything," Avinia encouraged him.

Flushing a deeper shade of scarlet and rubbing the back of his head, he mumbled, "You're going to think I'm crazy…"

"Lute, you were courageous enough to leave this safe village and stand up to the Black Blight," she smiled at him, an expression that made the lovestruck boy's stomach do a flip-flop. "And you were kind enough to try and save me in that ice cave, even when I wanted nothing to do with you. I could never think you were crazy."

Her heartfelt words flustered Lute, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times before he regained the use of his tongue. And even then, his performance was less than stellar.

"Uh, well, you see," he began, "I wanted to say – just between you and me… I have a – no wait, um, I meant that – hold on, I messed up – I wanted to tell you… wait, no, I mean, I've always –"

Malfie snapped.

The owl took a deep breath and then wracked her body in a colossal fake sneeze, fluffing out her feathers and sending out a vaporous cloud of orange-gold dust. The cloud of microscopic scales hit Lute right in the face, giving him no choice but to breathe the substance in.

The second he did, he stumbled unsteadily as the world around him began to spin madly. Malfie's ultra-fine scales had the ability to disorient anything that came into contact with them, and now Lute was so dizzy that he had no idea which way was up or down, or left or right, or forward or backward. He _thought_ he was backing away, wanting to rest against the fence before he fell down, but in reality he pitched forward with his startled shout blending with Avinia's.

All at once, the dizziness was gone – the effects of the confusion-dust vanished altogether. Normally, their effect lasted for up to a minute, but it could be banished completely via a huge shock to the victim, like a slap to the face or a bucket of cold water.

Lute's "huge shock" was made obvious to him pretty much instantly when he came out of his disorientated state. He'd fallen forward, pinning Avinia to the fence in the process, and kissed her full on the lips.

By the time he'd realized this, Avinia had recovered from her own shock and grabbed his face, enthusiastically kissing him back.

This unexpected turn of events did not go unnoticed. Whoops and cheers sounded from the other Riders – particularly Debli and Dan, the latter of which hollering that Lute was in "top form". The only one who didn't was Hyoro, who blushed timidly at the passionate scene and quickly busied himself with hiding away in the stables to clean his Monoblos.

Lilia approached Malfie, who had backed away to admire its handiwork, and heavily hinted, "You should probably apologize for doing that."

The Malfestio lifted its beak in smug satisfaction. _He'll thank me later. He ALWAYS thanks me later._

* * *

 **Monstie #15 – the Pavilion Mantis**

The day after Lute was miraculously reunited with his Monstie, Ka, in the city of Gildegaran, he noticed that she wasted no time in continuing her strange obsession with building things.

He had first met the Atoraru Ka as an egg in the Forbidden Land, and with the help of Cheval and Lilia, he'd successfully hatched her without a Kinship Stone. She was a golden mantis-like neopteron, perhaps the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life. During the early days of Rider training, Ka proved herself to be uncompromising and difficult, but when it came right down to it – like the fight with the blighted Nargacuga – she was a reliable and loyal companion that protected Lute and the Riders all the way up until her disappearance.

As if in slow motion, Lute had watched Ka fall to her apparent demise, disappearing among the thick clouds of fog that gathered below the cliff. But despite this tragic parting of ways, he got the feeling that he and Ka would reunite someday.

That day was in Gildegaran, after the disastrous first encounter with the blighted Diablos. Lilia was injured, and Cheval was more at odds with the group than ever. But as Lute searched for his missing friend, he heard talk of a strange monster attacking people at the docks – and it was Ka.

Now, Lute and Ka were spending their nights together at Reverto's place as they spent each day taking on quests and gathering supplies for their eventual rematch with the Diablos. The hunter's Felyne companion grumbled whenever he saw Ka, annoyed that the lazy and entomophobic Reverto now had a half-legitimate reason to stay in his room.

But when Lute got out of his room the next day, he closed the door and stopped dead when he saw what Ka had done to the courtyard.

Scrap metal. That was all he could see. Piles and piles of random pieces of junk lay strewn around the yard, piling up around the walls and generally making Reverto's yard look more like a landfill. Ka herself was especially noticeable among the dull silver and rusty red-brown, her golden exoskeleton flashing in the sun as she scuttled busily around. She'd pause long enough to secure a piece of scrap to the pile with her sticky silk, or to make a quick mark in the dirt with her claw, and then she was off again like a hyperactive Jaggi.

Feeling a bit numb, Lute walked forward while looking all around at the junkyard his Monstie had created for herself. Popola, Reverto's Felyne, was sweeping near the door with an irritated look on his muzzle.

"Oh, Lute," the anthropomorphic cat called when the Rider passed him. "Could you purrhaps rein in that monster of yours befur she buries us all in this scrap heap? Her little collection grows every day and it's meowking my fur turn grey, nya!"

"Sorry," he apologized with a grimace. "She used to do that in Hakum Village too. No idea why, but…"

He trailed off, staring at the dirt pit in the center of the courtyard where Ka was going to great efforts to keep stray pieces of metal out of the way. Either that mantis had some kind of whacky OCD, or whatever she was drawing in the dirt was really important.

"Sometimes I feel as though she's designing something to build later on," Lute finished, mostly to himself. "That must be why she's gathering all this metal…"

Lost in his own thoughts now, Lute opened the door and walked off the property to complete his errands. Popola watched him go with a sour expression before reluctantly resuming his sweeping. As he grumbled incoherently to himself, he knocked a piece of scrap away with his broom without a second thought.

The piece flew through the air, hit a larger pile and snapped the threads holding it in place, and then Popola was suddenly screaming as the entire thing collapsed on top of him like a metallic avalanche.

Ka scurried over the scattered pieces on her way from one task to the next, not even giving Popola or the newly-created mess any thought in her haste.

-.-.-.-.-.

Lute simply couldn't believe it. At the very peak of Mount Celion, where he stood in front of the ancient gates to the Ruins of Redan, the egg of the White Dragon had split its shell at the climax of a Kinship Rite more glorious than any he'd ever seen. At Cheval's hand, his enhanced Kinship Stone glowing a malevolent purple as it did its work, the White Dragon had been reborn as a full adult.

As Lute, Navirou, and all the others looked on with amazement, the White Dragon spread its great feathery wings and released a keening, ethereal wail that was unlike anything in the living realm. Cheval, whose hair was for some reason glowing brightly and reaching upwards like a furry sea anemone, climbed to the top of the White Dragon to stare imperiously down at the puny mortals that now cowered beneath his legendary mount.

"Now _I_ am the next coming of Redan!" the mad Rider declared, unsheathing his sword and pointing it toward the gates. "With the White Dragon as my Monstie, I will purge the world of the Black Blight!"

In compliance with his silent direction, the mammalian beast turned elegantly and proceeded into the ruins, leaving Lute and the rest behind with a smooth swish of its feathered tail.

"Cheval, no!" Lute cried, rushing forward to catch up with his best friend.

The White Dragon stopped and Cheval turned around, but it was only to look down on the brown-haired boy with scorn. "You can't stop me this time, Lute. The only way to stop the Black Blight is to kill all the blighted monsters, and I will destroy whatever is corrupting the last Kinship Ore, as is spoken of in the prophecy."

"Destroy? Cheval, this path you've taken has only destroyed yourself!" Lute protested. "We can still purify the Kinship Ore and end this peacefully if you just –"

"ENOUGH!" Cheval bellowed, his temper flaring. "You're wrong, and if you're still too blind to see it, I'll prove it to you! Come and challenge me if you dare!"

Never mind the fact that Cheval was clearly too far gone to be reasoned with. Never mind the fact that his Monstie was a full-grown elder dragon that could probably fight on even terms with an Alatreon. Lute had always been described as a "rash yet enthusiastic young boy", and he stayed as true to that characterization as ever – his response was to raise his Kinship Stone and accept Cheval's challenge, determined to win this seemingly hopeless clash of rivals.

"Ride On! Atoraru Ka!" he shouted.

The stone flashed bright blue, and Ka raced to his side on her four long legs. She screeched a battle challenge, her claws spread wide and her eyes glowing purple. But the White Dragon upstaged her by spreading its wings wide enough to blot out the sun and unleashing its ghostly wail. The roar was loud enough to sweep curtains of snow off the ground and send Lute stumbling backward.

Ka folded up her claws and, chittering quietly, burrowed under the ground. Soon, she was gone, seemingly having fled from what she thought was a hopeless battle.

"So that's it, then," Cheval said dismissively. "Your Monstie has more common sense than you, Lute. It's over. Maybe if you didn't put the lives of monsters over people – h-huh?!"

Right in the middle of his speech, the ground started to tremble hard enough to make him stumble on his perch atop the White Dragon's head. To Lute's utter shock, _something_ was rising up from the earth.

First came the head, at the end of a long neck. Two forelegs followed suit, then a body and two back legs. Finally, a scorpion-like tail sprung loose from the snow. The beast was absolutely _monstrous_ , its shoulders towering fifty feet in the air and its head easily fifty feet above that. Entire snowdrifts poured off of its metallic frame, and –

…wait, what?!

When Lute had gotten over his shock at the creature's sheer size, he was floored a second time when he realized something just as unexpected. The sauropod-like monster was made completely out of scrap metal, its various joints able to bend thanks to masses of golden thread that controlled its movements like an enormous puppet. In the very center of the artificial dragon, where the neck met the body, was a golden cocoon from which soft trilling sounds could be heard.

Surprisingly, Lute recognized the sounds. "KA?!"

 _This_ was what the Atoraru Ka had spent so much of her free time collecting metal for?!

" **DROOOOOOONNNNNN,** " the titanic machine let out an enormous groan. It stomped clumsily forward, its crude mechanical head towering above even the White Dragon.

"I-Impossible…" breathed Cheval, nothing short of horrified. "His Monstie managed to build a machine that could stand up to an elder dragon…?"

Lute's shock wore off amazingly fast, and he saw that Ka had given him an opportunity. He climbed easily up the machine's crudely-assembled leg and made it onto its flat back, grabbing hold of a convenient piece of debris for balance. He looked very much like a sea captain hanging from his ship's rigging – that is, if the ship in question looked like a conglomerate of metal in the shape of a quadrupedal dragon.

"Ride On!" he shouted again. "Atoraru Nesto!"

" **DROOOOOOOOOOONNNN,** " Ka's creation bellowed – an unnatural, terrifying sound loud enough to vibrate deep into the bones of all who heard it.

Its shadow fell over Cheval and the White Dragon, and the light of sanity briefly returned to the redhead's eyes before he squinted them shut, bracing for the pain he knew he oh-so-richly deserved.

* * *

 **Monstie #16 – the Serpent King Dragon**

"There's an egg nearby," Lute whispered, staring intensely into the depths of the forest. "I can feel it calling to me."

Cheval, Lilia, and Navirou exchanged unamused glances. They'd been traipsing up and down the Forbidden Land all afternoon, risking their hides for every second they stayed in the Arzuros-infested woods, and yet they haven't found a single monster egg. This was despite Lute insisting that he was on the brink of finding one practically every fifteen minutes.

"Lute, if we go any farther into the Forbidden Land, we can kiss our Rider apprenticeships goodbye," Cheval deadpanned.

"Good luck getting through to him when he's all fired up like this," Lilia replied, equally as snarky.

Puffing his cheeks angrily, Lute raced deeper into the woods and yelled over his shoulder, "I'll show you guys! This time, it'll be an egg for sure!"

Reluctantly, the other three followed the rash young boy (if only to make sure he didn't get eaten by an Arzuros) and eventually found him in a small forest clearing dominated by a curious old shrine. The statue dominating the shrine was distinctly shaped like a Felyne, which the gang observed with some bemusement.

"What is such an ugly old thing doing here in the woods, Navirou wonders?" the deformed cat in question asked himself out loud.

"I was actually kind of thinking it looks just like you," joked Lilia, provoking laughter from the two boys.

Navirou looked at the Felyne statue critically and seemed to arrive at the same conclusion as them. "Navirou thinks you kids are not wrong," he observed, climbing up the shrine to more closely inspect it. "Ha! On closer inspection, it is not ugly! It definitely captures the essence of the devastatingly handsome, yet humble, Navirou!"

He went to lean against the statue with one hand, all cool-like, when the ancient stone structure unexpectedly tilted to the side and fell off the shrine with a huge thud, causing dust to fill the air for several seconds.

Lute was about to scold Navirou for ruining the shrine, when suddenly, the words died on this tongue. In the absence of the Felyne statue, something else was brought to light… something that had been hiding for all this time. It was almost the same size, small enough to have remained undetected behind the statue, although it wasn't made of stone. Rather, when Lute reached out to run a hand over its surface, he found it had a leathery, almost organic texture…

The truth struck him all of a sudden, his entire body going stiff with shock from the realization.

"Guys, _this_ is the egg!" he gasped.

Despite the ridiculousness of the statement, Cheval and Lilia found themselves unable to argue as they gazed upon the object, which was easily larger than a full-grown man. They, through some inexplicable reasoning, couldn't deny that this was the egg they had been seeking.

That left only one thing to do.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone…_ "

-.-.-.-.-.

The Riders had all done their best, but their efforts were ultimately fruitless.

Dan and the senior Riders had been unable to stop it in the woods. Lute and his friends had tried and failed to ambush it and bury it beneath the earth. The blighted Nargacuga simply wouldn't give up, the Black Blight making its rage and hunger simply unstoppable. With a force of will that no untainted living thing could muster, the Nargacuga exploded out from its dirt prison and prowled away into Hakum Village.

"We have to follow it and make sure it doesn't reach the temple!" shouted Mille. "Chief Omna and the others are completely defenseless!"

Led by the dark-haired girl, the small posse of apprentice Riders mounted their Monsties and raced after the maddened predator. Lute was left behind, as his role in their failed plan had been to use himself as bait so that the Nargacuga would fall into their pitfall, so to speak. Now, Lute had to chase after his friends on foot, with Navirou at his side as always.

"Call your Monstie!" Navirou insisted. "Lute will be able to help defend the village against the Black Blight that way!"

But Lute shook his head and didn't say a word. He didn't want to call on his Monstie, especially in the middle of the village, unless he absolutely had to.

They followed the distant sounds of Nargacuga shrieks and shouting Riders through the abandoned streets of Hakum, which were murky due to the influence of the Black Blight, as well as it being after dark. Soon, Lute and Navirou had gotten close enough to see plumes of dust and smoke rising into the air in the heat of battle, and the flashes of black and purple as the blighted Nargacuga flitted from building to building.

Lute stopped in his tracks, horrified at the scene playing out before his eyes. Now that he was truly seeing the Nargacuga in action as opposed to struggling at the bottom of a pitfall, it was a simultaneously beautiful and repulsive sight. The pseudowyvern was jumping all over the place, pausing only to attack viciously before it was on the move again. It took both Mille and Hyoro down, the Black Blight making its graceful movements seem unnatural and corrupted. Cheval didn't last much longer, as one powerful lash of the panther-like wyvern's tail was enough to send him and his Velocidrome landing painfully on the cracked pavement.

The Nargacuga swiftly scuttled up the side and onto the roof of a nearby house, although the purple mist surrounding its body making it seem almost as though it was slithering up to its perch. But that wasn't what was truly bone-chilling, though – it was the fact that Lute recognized the house that its weight was threatening to collapse.

Cheval saw, too. "MOM!" he all but screeched, his voice cracking with pure fear.

Now there was no choice at all. Lute had to join the battle. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and mentally steeling himself for the task at hand. Just as the roof started to buckle under the Nargacuga's paws, he raised his Kinship Stone – its shining blue light was like a beacon in the foggy darkness.

"Ride On!" he roared. "DALAMADUR!"

The ground behind the house exploded with such force that there was more dust than oxygen in the air. A pair of hellish red eyes pierced the gloom as easily as it pierced their hearts with fear, and a fang-filled maw opened wide with a hideous screech unlike any other heard in the mortal realm. Faintly, through the fading reverberations of the newcomer's scream still ringing in their ears, the Riders could hear the terrified squeal of the Nargacuga as it suddenly found itself the hunted instead of the hunter.

When the dust settled, there was nothing to obstruct the sight of the awe-inspiring elder dragon towering over the (thankfully intact) house. Its serpentine neck curved elegantly downwards so that its head was held at roof-height, while its bladed talons dug crevasses in the ground on either side of the building. Its tail was long enough to wrap around the side of the building next door to Mrs. Vlau's, silvery and studded with blades. Its deadly snake eyes were like twin flames in the darkness of night, their gaze burning through everything in their path to stare straight into the Riders' souls.

The Dalamadur let the Nargacuga's lifeless corpse drop from its jaws as it lifted its head and unleashed a victorious screech that seemed to shatter the very sky.

The other Riders were speechless, both from being struck dumb with awe and being cowed into silence. They were so lucky Lute was on their side…

* * *

 **1\. A-Avatar reference?! I s-see no Avatar r-reference, n-no sir!**

 **2\. For instant awesome, just add Valfalk and stir generously. (Try putting Valfalk's theme on. Sets the mood perfectly.)**

 **3\. Let's be honest, this is the real reason Plesioth wasn't included in MH Stories…**

 **4\. I admit, I wasn't sure about using Rathian, but I'd say this scenario worked out.**

 **5\. Aka the living Dragon Ball Z reference.**

 **6\. Everything's better with owls. Lute's in no position to disagree.**

 **7\. Oh, you have your own kaiju, Cheval? Bitch please, Lute has a Jaeger.**

 **8\. LUTE OP CAPCOM PLS NERF**

 **-.-.-.-.-.**

 **I'm toying with the idea of adding a Part 3 before ending this project for good. Is there anyone who would vote for a Part 3? Let me know in your reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Lute, Meet Your Monstie! (Part 3)**

 **Here it is, the much-anticipated Part 3. Thanks for your support, readers – I'd have never done a Part 3 if you hadn't loved this story so much!**

 **Oh yes, and I know a lot of you requested Nargacuga, but I'm going to have to disappoint you. There was just no humorous scenario I could imagine involving Nargacuga, especially since one specific Narga is a huge antagonist in the anime. (I will say, though, that Narga is one of my favorite Monsties. Dat Kinship Skill tho.)**

* * *

 **Monstie #17 – the Dog Wyvern**

"It's alive," Lute murmured, gazing down at the egg in his hands. "I feel like this monster wants to hatch now."

Lilia and Cheval exchanged a glance, wondering if their mutual friend was either desperate or had otherwise gone insane. They knew that he wanted to hatch an egg by himself, before the Kinship Rite tomorrow, but this egg had been sitting on this shrine for who knows how long and probably wasn't even alive. Not to mention their obvious lack of a Kinship Stone to hatch it in the first place.

"Here he goes again with his 'I can feel it' business!" Navirou mocked in his obnoxious shriek of a voice.

But Lute was adamant. When Cheval and Lilia looked back at him to meet his gaze, they were stunned into speechlessness by the completely serious look in his eyes. No matter the odds, he was a hundred percent certain that they would succeed in bringing this long-dormant monster back to life.

None of them had ever known that the cheerful, brash, and occasionally mischievous boy they'd known all their lives could ever be so deadly serious about something. But here he was, staring at them so intensely – it was because of this that they were moved to help.

Together, they took their positions in a triangle around the egg, while a bored-looking Navirou stood on the sidelines while casually munching a donut. Lute stood at the front and didn't blink as he stared down at the egg, as if willing it to come to life with the sheer force of his will alone. When Lilia began the ceremony, he closed his eyes and focused – focused on the feeling of hope expanding in his chest that the egg would hatch and give him a special Monstie.

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone,_

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

At the end of the girl's intonation, the egg started shuddering wildly, multiple cracks forming across its shell. Navirou was so beside himself with shock that he allowed the remnants of his donut to drop from his paw as he goggled at the unbelievable sight happening before his eyes. He rushed to join the three humans as they watched the spectacle, the glow from the egg shining against their amazed faces.

Finally, the egg split open with a final flash of light, revealing the monster within. At first, Lute thought it was a Velocidrome – but then he realized that it was a fair bit bulkier and had a pinkish-white skin tone. When he fully realized which one it was, his smile grew wide enough to let a Bnahabra fly into his mouth.

"Holy Fatalis!" he whooped with joy. "I got a Great Jaggi!"

The raptor-like bird wyvern got to its feet and laid its large yellow eyes upon him, barking and growling as it seemingly accepted him as its Rider.

"I'm happy for you, Lute," Cheval smiled. "I mean, it's not the most impressive monster out there… but it's still really rare for these parts."

"And Great Jaggis are pack hunters!" added Lilia, patting her hands together with glee. "Whomever its allies are, it will protect them with all its strength!"

"Navirou _supposes_ Lute did a good job hatching it," the Felyne shrugged dismissively. "Of course, he'd never be able to do it without the helpful and handsome Navirou by his side."

Lute scoffed. "Thank the gods I've got a far more reliable guide with me now… you've got the navigational skills of a concussed Aptonoth."

Navirou was about to give Lute a fierce rebuttal in self-defense of his wounded pride, when suddenly the ground shook. The four of them turned fearfully around to look back the way they'd came, and sure enough, the Arzuros that had chased them all the way into the Forbidden Land was back and ready for more. It stood up on its hind legs and let out a harsh roar, displaying its spiky forelimbs in the process.

"What do we do? None of us have weapons or Monsties to defend ourselves!" cried Cheval, somehow making himself heard over Navirou's panicked shrieking.

"Hang on! We've got Jags with us now!" Lute realized, turning to look at his newly-nicknamed Great Jaggi.

As if in answer to a call to action, Jags stood up to his full (and very unimpressive) height and opened his jaws to release a long, carrying howl. The Arzuros took this as a challenge and started to lope forwards on all fours, its heavy footfalls causing small tremors as it charged closer and closer to the shrine.

"No!" Lilia screamed. "The Great Jaggi just hatched – it's gonna crush him like a Vespoid!"

But she was soon to be proven wrong. Out of nowhere, several pink-and-orange raptors jumped from the bushes and pounced on the Arzuros. They shrieked and yipped up a storm as they dug into the giant bear's fur with their sharp claws and fangs, causing it to snarl in pain.

"Incredible!" gasped Navirou. "Jags is still only a baby, but he summoned a pack of regular Jaggi to defend us!"

Lilia did a double-take, her fear of the Arzuros forgotten. "But… that's impossible. Jaggis aren't found in Pondry Hills or anywhere near here! Where did those Jaggis come from?"

-.-.-.-.-.

No-one could figure out from where the Jaggi pack had materialized. But the residents of Hakum Village were going to have to get used to them, because it had been three days since the official Rite of Kinship ceremony and they showed no signs of leaving.

With all the Jaggis making themselves at home in the village, Lute had rapidly gone from feeling on top of the world after hatching his brand-new Monstie to feeling like he'd been run over by a herd of Rhenoplos. (Hey, if the stories from visiting hunters were to be believed, those things _hurt_.) Apparently the village leaders had come to the unanimous decision that since Lute had indirectly summoned the little bird wyverns, then _he_ was supposed to be in charge of them.

Of course, Lute didn't figure this out until the crabby senior rider, Genie, had yelled at him for letting the Jaggis run rampant through the rice paddies.

This rapidly became Lute's daily routine. Day in and day out, it was wake up and attend Monstie training with Dan, run around the village with Jags to control the raptors, eat lunch, and do the same thing over again until dinner. Lute was running on about three hours of sleep per night at a minimum. And the Jaggis were absolutely relentless, always finding a new way to cause trouble.

Which was proven on the third day since the ceremony, when they all decided that stealing Cheval's golden Gargwa egg was a good idea.

"… Well, _that's_ ruined," huffed Lute, folding his arms in annoyance. "And after all that work we went through to find it, too."

A distraught Cheval merely hung his head and sighed despairingly, while the Jaggis crowded around the shattered golden fragments to get their fair share of the yolky goodness.

Jags, which was now at a regular Monstie size, howled at the smaller raptors, who all yipped obediently and ran off toward the stables in a cloud of dust. But although Lute appreciated Jags' help, he knew that the solution was only temporary and that the Jaggis would be getting on their nerves again very soon.

"I wish Riders could leave the village," he complained. "Then we could easily herd these guys back to Naubaka Island where they belong."

"But then you'd try using Jags' Kinship Attack and we'd be right back where we started," Lilia pointed out.

She was right – that attack summoned whatever Jaggis were in the area and used them in a coordinated strike. And if Jags had summoned a group of them from nowhere before, then he could probably do it again.

"Ugh, then maybe I'll just _move_ to Naubaka Island," Lute grumbled, sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. "Anything to get Genie off my back. He thinks me and my Monstie are a menace to society."

"That's not a bad idea," Cheval joked softly. "A tropical Felyne village sounds like a great place to retire early."

Lute laughed and started to reply, "Yeah, and –"

Suddenly, from the direction of the stables, there was a commotion. With an enormous, frustrated groan, Lute stood up and hopped back onto Jags' saddle. Based on the noises he could faintly hear coming from the distance, the disturbance was probably Jaggi-related.

It was. And it wouldn't even have been that bad if it hadn't involved Genie, who was a jackass to all the junior Riders on a _good_ day.

Basically, when Jags had ordered all the subordinate Jaggis back to the stables, they had run over Genie, who happened to be in the vicinity. Had the circumstances been any different, the Great Jaggi would have saved the village from an hour or two of Jaggi-induced mischief. As it was, Lute had to let his rapidly-growing anger stew silently inside of him as Genie vented at him for five minutes straight.

It took all of Lute's self-control to not give into temptation. His face absolutely burning with rage at the unfairness of it all, he wanted nothing more than to get the entire pack of Jaggis to chase his antagonist all the way to the Forbidden Land and back.

"Yep," he muttered, making his final decision as he turned his back on the older blonde. "Naubaka Island, here I come."

-.-.-.-.-.

Lute ended up leaving anonymously the very next day.

Through some cruel irony, the Jaggis didn't.

* * *

 **Monstie #18 – the Black Wolf Bird**

" _Oh holy Kinship Stone,_

 _Please, with thou bind together Lute with this slumbering creature._

 _And now, for the moment of new life._

 _Awaken!_ "

When Lilia finished the Rite of Kinship, it took a few seconds for the egg to respond. In those few seconds, everyone was watching the egg with bated breath, not sure if it was going to remain inert like they thought or suddenly hatch like Lute insisted. Those few moments were probably the most stressful Lute, or any of them, had experienced in their lives.

But it was worth it when the egg glowed all of a sudden, and the pieces of shell fell away to reveal a healthy Yian Garuga.

"Wow!" Lute marveled at the purple bird wyvern. "Such an awesome Monstie! You hardly ever see one of these!"

"Yeah, I'd have been surprised if you'd gotten even a Kut-Ku," Cheval remarked kindly. "But I think a Garuga fits you, Lute. They're smart and playful and have a mischievous streak, kinda like you."

"Aww, Cheval…" the brown-haired boy blushed at the compliment.

The Yian Garuga wobbled to its feet and looked inquisitively up at the humans, almost like it was considering their possible status as 'family'. It apparently judged them as so and stumbled forward to nuzzle them in greeting.

"It likes us!" gushed Lilia. "There's no turning back now, Lute! You have to make it your Monstie!"

Lute couldn't believe how quickly the day had changed. Before, he'd been wandering aimlessly through the dangerous Forbidden Land in hopes of finding his own egg, dragging his own friends out on the hopeless search and risking their collective inclusion in tomorrow's ceremony as a consequence. Then suddenly, he was finding himself the proud owner of a valuable new Monstie. He'd gone from what felt like rock bottom to the top of the world.

Additionally, it was hard to take Dan's scolding seriously when the baby Yian Garuga was play-hunting him to death. Seeing the senior Rider trying to berate them while a little bird wyvern was getting its talons tangled in his hair – that was truly the icing on the cake.

-.-.-.-.-.

"It's over, Lute!" Cheval snarled, staring down superiorly at his former friend. "With the White Dragon as my Monstie, I will destroy the blighted monsters and bring a stop to the Blight!"

The White Dragon punctuated his declaration with a ghostly howl, as if to make it clear that yes, this was really real and Cheval had succeeded in bringing it back. Challenging the redhead's status as the future savior of the world was out of the question.

But Lute and the others questioned it anyway.

"Cheval, don't do this!" pleaded Lilia. "You're not going to save the world this way!"

"I think the fact that I've succeeded in hatching the White Dragon proves you wrong," Cheval regarded her coldly, with his mount flapping its wings powerfully for emphasis.

"Your heart is full of rage and destruction," Simone noted grimly, adding the wisdom of the Royal Scriveners Captain to her apprentice's plea. "You may have lost family to the Black Blight, but in your attempts to avenge them, it is as if you have let the Blight taint you as well."

"Look kid, this isn't the path your mom would've wanted you to take," Reverto added with a solemn frown.

Cheval reacted to the two adults' words with shock and fury. His eyes streamed angry tears as he shouted at them, "Shut up! What have the Scriveners or the hunters done to combat the Blight?! Nothing! And now you finally decide to come forth and do something – to speak out against the only one who has a solution, when you've offered none in return! People like you are just as bad as the Blight that killed my mother, and all who have ever fallen to a blighted monster!"

His outburst stunned Simone and Reverto, like they were only just now getting a taste of the madness he'd fallen into. Yes, Lute reflected, there was no other way to describe it – as hard as it was to accept, Cheval had let his own loss twist him until he'd gone as mad as the very Nargacuga that had caused him such tragedy. No matter what he'd tried, Lute had so far been unable to shake his surrogate brother from the path he'd chosen.

But he wasn't about to give up. That wasn't how Lute did things. He just tried harder, even when the odds were stacked against him.

He stepped forward, away from Lilia and the others, with his ever-loyal Monstie Garou by his side. Their movement did not go unnoticed by Cheval, who glowered down at Lute and the Yian Garuga as if they'd been the ones to kill Mrs. Vlau.

(Which was funny, because the last time they'd seen Cheval, he'd accused them of doing just that. Oh, the irony.)

"If you're going to tell me to stop, you're wasting your time," the red-haired Rider scowled. "Even if I'd been in any kind of mood to listen to you, you've never been able to convince me that your way of doing things is better than mine. You're just an ordinary Rider who places too much belief in that _kinship_ of yours."

Lute's expression was like stone. "Just a Rider…?" he repeated, the response soft but as hard as the glare in his eyes.

Everyone else instinctively backed off, feeling suddenly nervous. They'd never seen Lute react like this, not even in previous confrontations with Cheval, and it made them apprehensive of what might be coming next.

"Do you have any idea of who the hell I am?!" Lute suddenly exploded, his tone rising dramatically. "Alright, you and that dragon better clean out your ears and listen up! The bond between Garou and me is stronger than a thousand Diablos! While mountains crumble and islands fall, our bond will withstand the test of time! You can break us down all you want, but we'll always rise up stronger than before! OUR KINSHIP IS THE KINSHIP THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!"

Lilia, Simone, and Reverto all exchanged a look of complete astonishment. They'd all seen Lute angry, but now, at this final confrontation between him and his former friend, he was reaching a level of over-the-top that transcended all expectations. Even Cheval seemed to have been utterly floored by Lute's furious rebuttal.

The rash yet enthusiastic young boy leapt into Garou's saddle in a single bound, his fist raised high in the air to display the shining Kinship Stone, its glow like a second sun. There was a fire in his eyes like none that had ever raged before, the passion with which they burned making even the White Dragon take a cautious step back.

"Go beyond the impossible and forge kinship with monsters! That's just how a Rider rolls!" Lute declared. "Let's go, Garou! Show them the fighting spirit that rivals even the power of Dire Miralis!"

The sinister-looking bird wyvern cawed and rocketed into the sky with a single flap of its wings, soaring high into the overcast sky until it had vanished among the clouds. But even though Lute and Garou had vanished from sight, the Kinship Stone shone like a blue beacon through even the thickest of cloud cover. Then they reappeared again, slowing their flight to a hover and staring Cheval and the White Dragon fearlessly in the eyes from up above.

"KINSHIP ATTACK!" roared Lute.

Garou screeched and climbed up, its speed making it powerful enough to banish the clouds away from Mt. Celion. The sky now turned into a perfectly clear blue blanket draped over the mountain, and the Yian Garuga and its Rider appeared as nothing more than a silhouette against the sun that now shone bright over the mountain.

"S-So this…!" Cheval spoke in a harsh whisper, barely able to speak through his shock. "Th-This is the power of kinship…!"

The Yian Garuga stooped down and began to spin, its whirling form soon becoming a purple blur with hazy white rings of displaced air trailing behind its body.

"GARRRUUUUGAAAA!"

Immediately, all of the non-Riders in the vicinity turned around and booked it back down the mountain, their primal instincts rising up from the depths to momentarily take over and scream at them to get far away from the natural disaster that was soon to come. They ran as fast as they could downhill despite the gravity threatening to send their progress out of control, and were soon joined by packs of Baggi, Glacial Agnaktors, Stygian Zinogres, and even Deviljhos coming from all over the mountain to flee in the same direction. The local wildlife was collectively obeying their own primal instincts and running for their lives before the coming calamity could strike their alpine home.

The only one who didn't move was Cheval, his dragon mount seemingly rooted to its spot, and he to his own. His pupils shrunk to horrified dots as the spinning Yian Garuga closed in at blinding speed. His body refused to do anything, terror locking him in its vice-like grip as he stared directly into the rapidly approaching apocalypse.

"DRRRIIIILLLLL!"

Now spinning so fast that the displaced air around it had formed an opaque drill-shaped tornado, Garou put on a final burst of speed and closed the last remaining distance between it and the White Dragon.

" **BRRRREEEEEAAAAAKKKKKKEEEERRRRRRR!** "

To say the mountain exploded would not be doing the ensuing spectacle any sort of justice.

Everyone who had gotten away in time stood knee-deep in the snow and, dazed, watched the enormous plume of snow and rock dust rise up in the distance to blot out the sun. For a moment, they thought they saw a white, winged figure limping through the air on its way out of the impact site, but it could've easily been a trick of their imaginations.

"I thought the Yian Garuga's Kinship Attack was called 'Barrel Charge'," noted Reverto. "At least, that's how it was the last time I saw it."

"Maybe 'Garuga Drill Breaker' was a one-time thing," Lilia said speculatively, "brought on by the clash of wills between Lute and Cheval reaching its all-time high."

They could only hope that was the case, because as they watched Lute and Garou fly towards them to rejoin their group, they realized they really didn't want to see what would happen next time they ran into Manelger.

* * *

 **Monstie #19 – the Giant Beast**

"Is it just me, or is this egg a bit… bigger than what we're used to seeing?" asked Cheval, cautiously.

In response, Lute, Lilia, and Navirou cautiously eyed the object that Lute had placed at their feet to examine. Unlike the typical Monstie eggs that they'd caught glimpses of from older Riders, which Lilia estimated to be about the size of a twelve-year-old's torso, this egg was more like the size of Dan's torso.

Which, no offense to Dan, was saying something.

Lute wasn't going to lie, it had taken him a lot of effort just to pick the egg up and deposit it at the base of the shrine at which they'd found it. It sat there in the grass even now, its shell patterned blue and red. Despite its over-average size, it looked so small and vulnerable.

"Come on, let's try to hatch this thing with an improvised Rite of Kinship," the brunette boy said. "Lilia, you know the words, right?"

The girl staggered a little bit and blinked in complete consternation at him. "Um, yeah, but…"

Tilting his head questioningly at her, Lute asked, "Are you okay, Lilia?"

"Y-Yes, I suppose," she answered tentatively. "I'm… just surprised at how quickly you came up with that idea. Have you done this before or something?"

Shrugging, Lute pretended not to acknowledge the mysterious feeling of déjà vu he was experiencing at this moment. "I just get the feeling that the monster inside really wants to hatch now."

"HA!" Navirou laughed. "Navirou will believe it when he sees it!"

Of course, the mutant Felyne wasn't feeling so smug after the three human kids picked up their pretend Kinship Stones, recited the words of the ceremony, and successfully hatched the oversized egg.

The baby inside was appropriately massive, its shoulder right at chin height for Lute. Heck, it was pretty much the same size as a regular Monstie, and it hadn't even had time to grow yet! It blinked the black eyes hidden under its shaggy blue fur and reached out with its long nose to touch Lute's soft brown hair, obviously curious.

"Wow, you're huge!" Lute exclaimed in admiration, and ran his hand along the monster's trunk. "Absolutely mammoth!"

"It's _Gammoth_ , actually," Lilia corrected him with some amusement.

"Well, whatever it's called, they seem to have bonded quite well already," observed Cheval with a smile. He seemed to be enjoying the sight of Lute and the Gammoth interacting.

"From what I've read," the all-knowing one reminisced, "Gammoth are supposed to be very stubborn, no-nonsense monsters. I think it'll be good for Lute to have someone to keep things in perspective for him, don't you?"

Cheval nodded, then the two of them burst out laughing when Lute's new Monstie picked him up and placed him on a low-hanging tree branch to retrieve some leaves that were out of its reach. It was the flabbergasted expression on their friend's face that sold it.

-.-.-.-.-.

Ten years later, Lute abruptly woke up and had to squint his eyes shut against the blinding sunlight streaming into his face.

Groaning as he felt a headache coming on, Lute blinked rapidly to get used to the intense light and shifted in his bed so that he was lying on his back. Once his vision adjusted, he was able to find the answer to the question of why his nice dark room was suddenly flooded with sunlight – namely, the gaping hole in the roof that hadn't been there when he'd fallen asleep.

Something told him that he wasn't going to like whatever explanation awaited him for this blatant disrespect for a working man's property.

There was a rustling sound as Avinia rolled over to look at him, obviously just coming out of slumber herself. Her eyes were glazed with sleepiness and her blonde hair was messy from last night's… _activities_. But despite her half-asleep state, she still managed to give her husband a very pretty smile.

"Mornin'…" she slurred, wrapping her warm arms around him. "Can you check on the Monsties? I'll be up in a few more minutes…"

Lute hugged her back and murmured, "Of course. You get some more sleep and I'll feed Frostfang for you, right after I'm done fixing the roof."

Avinia was so tired that she didn't seem to care about why the hell the roof needed fixing. She just hummed "Mm-kay…" and gave him a loving kiss on the lips, then closed her eyes and was instantly dead to the world.

Smiling fondly at her, Lute slipped out from under the blankets and got dressed. From the hole in the roof, he could see a cloudless blue sky and feel a nice warm breeze blowing in to tickle his skin. Lute's spirits could only rise after being given such an obvious promise of a perfect day awaiting him…

…only for the sight of a furry trunk reaching over the side of the house to tear more of the roof out to _immediately_ worsen his mood.

See, Hakum Village was built to be simple and practical. They were a remote settlement that didn't interact much with the rest of the world, and thus they didn't have the same resources that Gildegaran and Albarax did to improve their quality of living. Long, dry grasses were the best source of insulation in their parts, so they gathered tons of it and thatched it all together to make their roofs.

The problem with this, at least for Lute? Grass was edible.

He stormed out of the house and walked around to the back, just in time to catch Gammy stuff another trunkful of his roof into its mouth. Even though it was only a Monstie and thus only a third as big as a full-grown Gammoth, it was still as tall as the house itself and thus more than capable of reaching up to make breakfast out of an innocent man's roof. And the massive fanged beast didn't give two whits about whose house she had to decimate in order to get her fill.

"Alright Gammy, haven't you caused the village enough misery this week?" Lute cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled up to his companion.

Gammy finished chewing and reached up to take another morsel, acting as if it couldn't even hear him shouting.

"Why can't you just eat what I give you like a normal Monstie?" he continued to scold anyway. "This week alone, I've been getting complaints from Mille, Genie, _and_ Chief Omna! You're going to get us both kicked out of Hakum if you keep destroying people's houses!"

Again, Gammy didn't respond, completely ignoring its Rider as it stuffed itself.

With his eternally stubborn Monstie riling him up this early in the morning, Lute was about three seconds away from a brain hemorrhage. The blood pressure increased until his face was bright red and feeling as though it was about to explode. It wouldn't have been so infuriating if the Gammoth actually _listened_ to him – but no, on top of having a bad habit, it just went along with it and didn't care who objected, not even its Rider.

It was at this point that Frostfang came around wondering why its breakfast was taking so long to arrive. The Barioth, unlike Gammy, was a loyal and noble beast whose selflessness and sense of justice had earned its species the nickname of "White Knights of the Tundra". It helped out around the village, sometimes protecting people that went out to Pondry Hills from rogue Velociprey attacks, and at other times helping out with repairs to buildings (which were nowadays most often needed on account of Gammy's I-don't-give-a-damn attitude).

Frostfang and Gammy were of such conflicting natures that they couldn't stand each other, unfortunately for the married couple that owned them. And so when Frostfang saw that Gammy was causing unwarranted destruction to the village for purely selfish reasons again, its eyes glowed red and it pounced on the Gammoth's face.

Lute was already wincing before Gammy completely flipped its sh*t at the unprovoked attack and slammed Frostfang into the ground with a trumpeting roar. The enraged pachyderm then reared up to deliver a bone-crushing stomp, only for Frostfang to tackle it in the underbelly and send them both toppling to the ground.

The *CRAAAAAAASH* caused by several tons of fanged beast and flying wyvern slamming into the Monstie stables and consequently breaking through the wall could be heard throughout all of Hakum.

Which was soon followed by every Monstie in the village being startled from their collective sleep and stampeding.

Over the sounds of Frostfang's blizzard-like howls and Gammy's enormous bellows, Lute muttered hopelessly to himself, "Avinia's gonna eat me alive."

(She didn't. But Genie and Dan almost did.)

* * *

 **Monstie #20 – the Thousand Blade Wyvern**

It was a rare moment of relaxation for Lute. His life had become one big whirlwind of adventure ever since the Nargacuga had attacked and the Riders were allowed to venture out to stop the Black Blight. Heck, it was only yesterday when he'd defeated the blighted Diablos in the desert.

Hence, the moment of relaxation.

It was morning in Gildegaran, and Lute wanted to grab a bite to eat before going to meet with Lilia and the Royal Scriveners for more information about the Black Blight. So he, Navirou, and his Monstie decided to grab a bite to eat. They were just now digesting their recently-consumed meal at a table outside the door of McAptonoth's, hoping for a bit of rest before they went ahead with their next course of action.

The golden creature laying down for a mid-morning nap on the street beside Lute's table was Serrah, the Seregios. It had proven to be a powerful and fierce Monstie in various battles against wild monsters, and had greatly helped Lute win the trust of the people of Gildegaran (which was why it wasn't currently being swarmed by hunters hoping to get a Seregios Lens for their next armor set). However, true to its nature, Serrah could get wild and violent at times and had proven a handful for Lute to control more than once.

"Navirou's finished his donuts!" the cat himself announced, hopping out of his seat. "He is ready to follow Lute to see Lilia and learn more about the blight!"

"I still don't know how you managed to fit those into your gut after downing those Aptonoth burgers," Lute shook his head, once he'd picked up his Great Sword and slung it over his back. "Or, come to think of it, how you carried them in the first place. You don't even have pockets!"

"Navirou never reveals his donut-related secrets!" he protested.

Serrah awoke to the sound of Navirou's screechy voice and decided it didn't like it, waving its tail in his general direction to warn him off. The Seregios got to its feet and gave its razor-sharp scales a quick rattle, in much the same way a bird would fluff out its feathers before letting them lie flat again.

"Ready then?" Lute asked, hopping aboard the saddle. "Let's head for the Hunter's Guild!"

Once Navirou had gotten into position right behind Lute, the young Rider urged Serrah away from McAptonoth's and onto one of the main roads. There weren't too many people out and about at this time of day between breakfast and lunch, so the Monstie didn't really get in anyone's way. Besides, the townsfolk were used to seeing Riders by now, and so the worst the unusual trio got were some curious stares as they walked through the city. They weren't planning on being out and about for long anyway – just a trip to the Hunter's Guild and then back to Reverto's place to pack up their supplies.

Unfortunately, Gildegaran was still an incredibly large city, and Lute and Navirou hadn't been all the way out to this particular neck of the woods yet, so to speak. They wandered up and down a few streets in what they thought was the direction of the Hunter's Guild – Lute even used that age-old, tried-and-true method of asking Navirou to navigate and then going in the opposite direction, but it got them nowhere. Eventually, he had to admit that they were lost.

"We've never been to this part of town before," Lute muttered, sliding off of Serrah's back to let it rest for the time being. "None of the buildings look familiar and there are so many different streets, it's hard to keep them all straight!"

"Well, we've gotta get to the Hunter's Guild to meet with Lilia somehow!" Navirou cried. "If even Navirou's exceptional navigational skills fail us, then we have no choice but to ask for di–"

"I know!" Lute exclaimed, speaking over the Felyne. "I'll just have Serrah fly us over! Once we're above the city, locating the Hunter's Guild will be super-easy!"

He grabbed Navirou by the tail and dragged him back aboard the Seregios. It spread its wings and took a running start down the street, causing a couple of pedestrians to hastily get out of the way. Once Serrah had gotten enough momentum going, it took to the air, and Lute grinned with anticipation as the pavement below got smaller, and smaller, and sma–

*FLAAAAAASH!*

"SHREE!" Serrah let out a startled shriek when the Flash Bomb went off, rendering her blind and effectively knocking her out of the sky.

Rubbing his throbbing head and stretching his aching joints after the nasty fall, Lute looked up to see a hunter bedecked in Qurupeco armor striding toward them.

"What's the big idea?" the brown-haired boy demanded, miffed. "You think I had any plans to fall twenty feet out of the sky today? I could've broke something!"

The hunter ignored him and said disapprovingly, "Inside the city is a no-fly zone, Rider kid. Can you imagine how the citizens would panic if they saw a Seregios flying all over?"

"But I thought we didn't have to worry about that anymore," Lute replied, letting out a grunt of relief when he cricked his neck to alleviate some of the strain.

"Doesn't mean they wouldn't take one look at a wyvern-sized silhouette above them and immediately go into panic mode," the hunter sighed, like it was obvious. "Look, we appreciate what you've done for this town, and we know the Guildmaster is cool with you and all, but you've still gotta respect us and our rules."

Lute winced. It _was_ kind of obvious, now that he thought about it.

Navirou raised his paw, his poker face nothing short of epic. "Is not flying a monster within the city an official law?"

"Uh…" the hunter faltered, knowing that Navirou had a point. "Well, okay, because we've never seen a Rider until now, it's not an _official_ rule, but can you at least show some common courtesy and walk like everyone else?"

Now it was Lute's turn to sigh. "Alright, alright. But we're looking for the Hunter's Guild, and we're kinda lost. Can you tell us where to go?"

After getting some directions from the hunter, who was only too happy to help, they were finally on their way toward their meeting with the Scriveners. Lute led Serrah into a more familiar part of the city, and he could finally start to see the docks and hear the sound of ocean waves. He knew that they were close to the Guild at last.

"Hey, Rider kid!" came a voice.

Lute turned around in surprise and saw a pair of hunters walking toward him with easygoing expressions, lifting their hands in a friendly wave hello. Bewildered, he stopped and let them approach, having no idea about what they wanted with him.

"You're the one that made friends with Reverto and saved Albarax from the Diablos!" the female hunter, who wore Nerscylla armor, enthused. "Remember, Darren, I was telling you about him?"

The male hunter shrugged, his Monoblos armor clanking in the process. "Yeah, I remember. Nice to meet you in person, Rider. Never thought I'd see someone tame a monster in my life. You've opened up the eyes of a lot of us hunters to a new world of possibilities, you know?"

Chuckling sheepishly, Lute rubbed the back of his head as he blushed at the praise.

"Are you and your Felyne and monster headed for the Hunter's Guild?" asked the female hunter. "Would you let us walk with you? We were going there to meet our friend and take on a challenging quest – hunting a Teostra!"

Neither Lute nor Navirou had any problems with it, and Serrah didn't seem particularly hostile toward the hunters, so they all continued toward their destination as one group. The two hunters had quite a few questions about what it was like to be a Rider.

"Is it difficult raising a monster?" the male, Darren, asked. He seemed to be the warier of the two when it came to Lute's Seregios.

"Well, every monster has its upsides and downsides," Lute tried to summarize. "Serrah can be really temperamental, especially around Rathalos and Rathian, which my friend tells me are its natural enemies. I've definitely had my problems with her, especially during Rider training…"

Inwardly, he winced as flashbacks involving lots and lots of bladescales involuntarily paraded through his head.

"…but our kinship is still as strong as ever, and I couldn't ask for a more powerful or reliable companion in our quest to rid the world of the Black Blight!" he finished, undeterred.

By now, the hunters were regarding him and Serrah with something like awe. (Navirou was slightly put out by this.) They looked at the Seregios in particular with a bit extra amazement, like they were having trouble believing that such a ferocious flying wyvern could be such a heroic and respectable ally. Lute figured it was because they were simply used to thinking of monsters as just animals that inconvenienced humankind from time to time.

He was jostled out of his surprisingly philosophical musings when Navirou tapped his shoulder to get his attention. They were now walking along the bridge that would lead them directly to the Hunter's Guild, and the magnificent building itself was nothing more than a short walk away. About halfway across the bridge, there seemed to be a figure waiting for them – or at least two of them.

"There he is!" said the female hunter.

Waving her arms above her head to signal her fellow hunter, she got his attention easily and he started walking toward them, arms outstretched as he prepared to greet his comrades-in-arms. The closer the new hunter got, the better Lute was able to identify the type of armor he wore – based on the green scales that made up part of the garments, he supposed that it was made from Rathian materials.

It was right at the moment Serrah suddenly lifted its head alertly that Lute abruptly realized the amount of Congalala dung they were now in.

"WAIT!" he shouted, frantically waving his arms at the approaching hunter. "DON'T GET ANY CLOS–"

" **SCREEEEE-REEEEEE!** "

Eyes glowing murderously, Serrah tackled him, Navirou, and the other hunters out of the way as it charged full tilt at the Rathian hunter, its nostrils filled with the stench of its most hated foe.

He took one look at the furious Seregios and obeyed his fight-or-flight instincts. That is, by turning tail and running in the opposite direction, screaming his head off all the while.

-.-.-.-.-.

"Captain Simone, we have a visitor!" chirped Pappan, poking his head into his superior's study.

"Ah, that'd be young Lute, here to see my apprentice," Simone mused aloud. She looked up and gave her assistant a small smile. "Go ahead and let him in, if you please."

But when Pappan opened the heavy doors to allow their guest entry into the Hall of Scriveners, he was confronted by a most unexpected figure.

"You, Miss Simone, and Miss Lilia should probably come take a look at this," the Guildmaster deadpanned.

The three bewildered Scriveners followed him into the Guild's main hall and immediately stopped dead at the flat-out _shocking_ scene that now played before them.

Three hunters were running in circles around the hall, the weapons strapped to their backs forgotten as they frantically pumped their arms and legs as fast as they would go. An undersized Seregios pursued them wherever they went, its screeches echoing horribly off the walls as it swooped and dived freely after the hunters, all of its bladescales standing on end like a pinecone with serious anger issues. Dangling from the furious flying wyvern's tail was Lute, with Navirou in turn dangling from the boy's outstretched leg.

"NAVIROU THINKS SERRAH DOESN'T LIKE HIS RATHIAN ARMOR!"

"NO DUH, WISE GUY!"

"I WANT MY MOMMY!"

" **SCREEEEE-REEEEEE!** "

Simone sank to the floor and moaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. She could feel a migraine coming on already.

* * *

 **Monstie #21 – the Dancing Thunder Wyvern**

Lute took a deep breath, clenching his slightly sweaty fingers around the rock as he concentrated on the ritual that Lilia was leading. While the others had doubts about being able to hatch the egg – and he had to admit, the mossy old thing hatching after all this time was kind of a long shot – but there was nothing but certainty in his mind. He'd felt the unhatched Monstie still alive inside there, imploring him to crack open its shelled prison and awaken it.

And so it began. Lute began by introducing himself, and Lilia proceeded with the words of the ceremony. She finished it off with " _Awaken!_ " and they all held their breaths, waiting to see if their unofficial Rite of Kinship had worked.

The first thing the future Riders were shocked about was that, yes, the ceremony had indeed worked.

The second thing they were shocked about was what, exactly, actually came out of the egg.

The final thing that shocked them… well, _literally_ shocked them. The baby's body suddenly buzzed with a flash of electrical energy and sent out tiny lightning bolts that stung them all on the butts.

"Is that a…" Lilia started, then interrupted herself uncertainly. "No, that couldn't be. I've only seen those things in books."

"Oh come on, Lilia, tell us what it is!" Lute pleaded.

Still looking uncertain, the all-knowing one eyed the vulture-like wyvern and tentatively answered, "Okay, so I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, because it comes from a different land with a different language… It's a Ber… Berukyurosu. I think that's it."

The Berukyurosu got to its feet and let out a surprisingly deep chirp for its size, its wide eyes seemingly absorbing every little bit of visual information they could give it. It flapped its wings experimentally, causing the sharp ribbons trailing off of them to lash around with quiet whistling noises.

"Do you know anything else about it?" winced Cheval, rubbing his backside. "Besides the fact that it obviously has power over the Thunder element?"

A finger on her chin, Lilia mused, "The book also said they were more fragile than most wyverns, but they're also the smartest monsters in the world and super-fast learners. Apparently no hunter that tries the same trick twice ever succeeds in defeating them… or at least, that's what I've read."

Navirou shrugged. "That thing can't possibly measure up to Navirou's razor-sharp intellect. Navirou is the smartest of the smart and the coolest of the cool. And that's _a Navi-rule_."

"Yeah, like using your brain has ever worked out for us before," scoffed Lute.

"Hey!" Navirou shrieked. "Just because Lute has always been jealous of Navi–"

" _Lute!_ "

The distinctly non-human voice made them all jump almost a foot in the air, and Lute himself most of all.

" _Lute!_ " the voice came again, and this time they caught the hatchling's jaws move in sync with the vocalization.

It was impossible, and yet there was no mistaking it.

"D-Did… it just say your name…?" Cheval questioned, barely able to get the words out.

The brown-haired boy didn't listen, too enraptured by the Berukyurosu's newfound ability to pay him any mind. His Monstie said his name again and hopped down the steps of the shrine to look up at him adoringly, continuously repeating 'Lute' like it was totally proud of itself and its own cleverness.

"A-And it seems like that super-fast learning also applies to speaking human languages," Lilia stammered. "Oh boy… something tells me this might get us into trouble."

-.-.-.-.-.

In the Trese Desert just outside the refugee camp of Oasum, things had just gone from bad to worse.

Cheval and the other Riders had just disposed of a blighted Cephadrome and all was hunky-dory – especially in light of the fact they'd just managed to convince the stubborn Captain Gentor and his hunter allies of the competence of Riders. But then hell broke loose once again, this time in the form of a self-proclaimed scientist called Dr. Manelger and his ditzy assistant, who had just summoned a Barroth wearing movement-controlling armor that bent it to its evil master's will. The receiver crystal on the Barroth's helm had cracked, granting the brute wyvern some of its free will back, and it had decided it didn't like its predicament and was sluggishly struggling to get the armor off.

"Someone do something!" gasped the Albarax Village Chief. "If that monster frees itself, it will likely go on a rampage and endanger our lives!"

Not needing telling twice, Cheval boarded Rathi for a second time and charged after the Barroth. Lute was far more hesitant, recognizing the pain the Barroth was in and reluctant to face it in battle. But he also realized that doing so could also save the poor saurian, and so it was with this goal in mind that he raised his Kinship Stone.

"Ride On!" he shouted. "Berukyurosu!"

The whistle of clawed ribbons through the air sang to him on the desert wind as Beru came skidding in for an elegant landing. " _Hark! Hail, Sir Lute!_ " it proclaimed with a strange accent. " _For what task dost thou require aid, my liege?_ "

Captain Gentor staggered backward, almost falling onto his armor-clad backside in shock. "Wh-What the – i-it talks?!"

The other hunters were surprised, but they kept their cool a lot better than their leader did. "Why does it talk like that?" said a woman wearing Khezu armor.

Beru snapped its head toward her and gave her a skeptical look. " _Because 'tis funny,_ " it deadpanned. " _But, Sir Lute, I recognize that we doth be in some kind of danger! A fell brute wyvern approacheth at the behest of a loathsome knave!_ "

Lute nodded and explained the situation in as few words as possible, and then mounted the flying wyvern to catch up to Cheval. The battle was fierce yet brief, and even though Lute aimed to simply rid the beast of its controlling armor, the redhead managed to land the finishing blow in the form of a murderous Scorching Slice that felled the Barroth instantly.

Dr. Manelger snuck away in the midst of the chaos, muttering something about success being built on failure and early prototypes always having design flaws.

Landing heavily on the sand to rest, Lute silently gazed over his shoulder at the dead Barroth and felt tears spring to his eyes. He murmured, "I'm sorry, Beru, but we weren't quick enough to save it."

" _O Great Rider, doth not regret thine mistake,_ " Beru replied solemnly, yet encouragingly. " _By stopping the cursed Black Blight, we shalt save many a monster._ "

The Riders, led by Dan, ended up heading back to Oasum on foot while the hunters decided what to do with the Barroth and Cephadrome. Beru stuck by Lute's side even after all the other Monsties had left, knowing that his presence would help soothe his master's guilt. Along the way, Cheval seemed to be growing increasingly quiet and sour as he, like everyone else, reflected on the incident that had happened earlier.

"It's so strange that that man would come up with a way to control monsters like that," Mille said uncomfortably, for once sounding almost as timid as Hyoro.

"Yeah…" the soft-spoken boy himself replied. "I mean, we ride monsters too, but… what he did to that Barroth was… wrong."

"If we'd killed that Barroth when we had the chance, none of this would've happened," Cheval muttered under his breath.

Lute heard his friend's utterance and looked at him with a nose wrinkled in confusion. "Why? Why would we have killed it? It wasn't a threat to anyone."

Huffing, Cheval turned away, glaring down at the sand underneath his feet. By now, all the Riders had stopped walking and were looking at the redhead with open concern. Navirou, on the other hand, sensed trouble and started edging away, muttering about Tropical Berries not finding themselves.

"Monsters kill people," Cheval said through gritted teeth. "These tragedies happen because Lute puts the needs of monsters ahead of people."

"What did _I_ do?!" Lute demanded, shocked at the accusation. "No-one got hurt, and it certainly isn't my fault some lunatic decided to turn that Barroth into his puppet!"

" _And what dost thou mean, 'monsters ahead of people'?_ " Beru added, sounding personally offended. " _Art thou implying that monsters art not living, breathing beings equal to thine own ilk? Perchance, what doth humans have that maketh them superior?_ "

"They're just animals," spat Cheval. "Animals whose unpredictable instincts make them a danger to everyone around them. Are you saying our Monsties have _feelings_ when we tell them to fight for us? Are you saying that the Nargacuga had _feelings_ when it attacked our village?!"

He whipped around to fling the spiteful words into Lute and Beru's faces. Everyone else was struck dumb by the sheer dissonance of the enraged tone coming from the normally kind-hearted Cheval's mouth. Even Dan's jaw had dropped, rendering his ability to put the two children in their place useless.

" _Zounds! How dare thee imply such things, whelp?!_ " scolded Beru.

"Lute should've never taught you to talk," Cheval growled. "Monsties should stay quiet and do what their masters tell them, instead of growing inflated egos and feeling entitled to speak their minds."

" _I shalt sayeth the same about thy own knowledge of linguistics!_ " the intelligent wyvern shot back. " _Mayhaps thou wouldst better learn thine place if thy tongue was forever stilled!_ "

"Shut up, you overgrown Fulgurbug!" he shouted.

" _Heed thine own advice, scaleless pink worm!_ " Beru bellowed.

Lute blinked in pure consternation as he watched Cheval and Beru charge forward and slam into each other, their verbal conflict turning physical in the blink of an eye. A great cloud of desert sand was kicked up in the midst of their brawl, obscuring the sight of the blows being thrown but not the sounds of them landing. As they punched and whacked, kicked and slashed, pecked and battered, their mouths let fly with some serious trash talk.

"You fight like a Kelbi!"

" _A Kelbi must hath taught thee to duel!_ "

"Hideous beast!"

" _Lowly land-walker!_ "

"Vulturine pest!"

" _Spawn of Deviljho!_ "

It was a situation that left the kids totally numb. On top of Cheval suddenly becoming edgy and violent and then getting into a wrestling match with a Berukyurosu, it was actually a surprisingly fair fight. Beru's hollow bones were more fragile than most, meaning that he couldn't take as much damage despite being able to dish out far more than Cheval could. Eventually, Dan had to shake away his shock and step in to separate the two of them.

"You two are definitely not in top form!" he yelled. One of his hands was clamped around Beru's crest and the other hand had Cheval by the hair. "I don't fully understand what kind of problem you two have with each other, but you never answer words with fists! Or talons!"

His scolding did jack-squat as even though he managed to hold them apart from one another, he couldn't get them to listen. Right there in front of him, they started slapping away at each other with their forelimbs.

There was a *clank* as Mille abruptly dropped her weapon and walked away, stating bluntly, "That's it, I'm out. I can't believe I'm watching Cheval getting into a slap-fight with a Monstie. Peace out, I'm done, screw you guys."

A twitchy Hyoro hastily followed her, murmuring, "M-M-Maybe he's right, a talking Monstie just gets itself into trouble…"

Lute facepalmed. He thought he'd best get out of here and see what Navirou was getting up to…

* * *

 **Monstie #22 – the Cruel Claw Wyvern**

There was a problem with Lute's new Monstie.

The hatching ceremony had gone off smoothly enough, which was surprising due to the future Rider's obvious lack of a Kinship Stone. Thanks in no small part to Lilia, they managed to pull it off correctly, causing the egg to shatter to fragments and the monster inside to awaken for the first time.

But… no-one knew what it _was_.

Even Lilia was stumped, which was no small feat. The boys were almost more shocked at that than they were at the unknown monster that crawled from the remnants of the egg, which was plenty shocking in and of itself. The monster was pale red and looked like it didn't have skin, except for its scute-covered tail. Its jaws were elongate and had exaggerated canine teeth sticking out of the front.

Normally, Lute wouldn't have been repulsed by such a thing – but when it experimentally tapped its feet on the ground to get a feel for the act of walking, it revealed that it had a second set of claws extending from under its first set. The end result of this anatomical oddity made it look like each foot had another, fully functional foot growing out from underneath. When it first flexed its claws, Lute reflexively vomited in his mouth.

Cheval summed up its appearance as "a zombie-looking skinned crocodile-dog mutant with razor blades stitched onto its feet". Even a perturbed Lilia had to admit he wasn't wrong.

Still, a Monstie was a Monstie, even if no-one could figure out what it was and it looked like something that had crawled up out of a pile of rotting monster corpses. Lute, who would have normally named it after what its species was called, instead decided on the simple yet fitting moniker of "Claw" to bestow upon the creature.

It wasn't until several days later that they would learn of Claw's kind. The knowledge was completely unexpected, but come it did in the form of the visiting Captain of the Royal Scriveners.

After Simone pulled Lilia and Loloa out from the grasp of the deadly Iodrome, the Riders going through their initiation ceremony in the depths of the cave figured out that something was wrong and doubled back. Upon seeing the dangerous bird wyvern threatening his dear friend, Lute didn't hesitate, thrusting his Kinship Stone high to call upon his Monstie.

Claw came out and demolished the Iodrome in less than a minute, using its weight to tackle the slimy raptor and then crushing its skull with its numerous talons. It was a brutally swift scene that left poor Hyoro cowering behind Mille, but Lute allowed himself to look past the carnage if it meant Lilia was safe from harm.

That night, Simone was allowed to examine Lute's Monstie with nothing short of wonder. She knew of its kind from her faraway colleagues, investigating something she called a "new world". She said that Claw was a fanged wyvern called Odogaron, and she was beyond surprised to see it under the ownership of a Rider.

Lute, though, was just relieved it had taken him this long to learn its species name, now that he knew a nickname based on "Odogaron" would probably sound stupid.

-.-.-.-.-.

"Ow ow ow…" Lute complained, wincing as he rubbed his aching backside. "That's the fourth time this week…"

The Rider that Dan had pit him against in a mock battle, Cheval, graciously offered his surrogate brother a hand up. Accepting it, Lute let the redhead pull him off the grass and onto his feet. Behind him, Claw could be heard whining like a kicked puppy as it got to its own feet, a bruise already developing on its side.

"Sorry I had Velocidrome kick you two like that," Cheval muttered. "I thought Claw would get out of the way, or fight back… or something."

"And I thought he wouldn't buck me off again, but nope," Lute sighed. He winced again, feeling the pain in his butt flare up all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," Lilia offered. She was the only other one left at the stables after the mock battle had ended. "Why is Claw suddenly so awful at combat? I saw it absolutely demolish that Iodrome with my own eyes… unless I was already delirious from the venom, that is."

Shaking his head, Lute confirmed, "You weren't delirious, Lilia. Maybe Claw just doesn't like fighting, and that incident in the cave was just it getting desperate over trying to save you?"

"Doesn't seem right," Cheval shrugged. "Simone said that Odogarons are pretty violent."

Worriedly, Lute looked over at his Monstie. Claw was currently walking in circles, stamping down on the grass until he'd formed a comfortable bed to rest on. He lay his head down on his claws and flicked his tail from side to side contentedly.

"Not this one, apparently," Lute stated, a tad unnecessarily.

"But Lute, what happened?" frowned Lilia. "I thought you said yesterday that your training with Claw was going really well."

At this, he blushed with embarrassment. "Well yeah, training's going great… I just never said it was regular Monstie training."

His two best friends looked at him uncomprehendingly, their mouths flapping open and closed like a fish's.

Cheval ended up asking the inevitable question. "So… what kind of training _have_ you been doing with it?"

In reply, Lute went over to where Claw had settled down. The fanged wyvern noticed his approach and lifted its head to see what its Rider wanted. The other two stayed silent, wondering what Lute was up to.

"Okay, Claw, sit!" he ordered.

To the bafflement of both Cheval and Lilia, the Odogaron immediately shifted its position so that it was sitting on its rump, its head raised alertly and crocodile-like tail wagging.

"Roll over!" continued Lute.

Claw did so, ending up back in a standing position. It let out an eager, guttural bark and wagged its tail even more enthusiastically.

The demonstration went on as Lute instructed Claw to shake, speak, and play dead, in that order. Cheval and Lilia were pretty much speechless at the whole display. Unfortunately, the weirdness of a fearsome zombie-like wolf beast acting like a domestic dog could not be put into words – it was something that had to be seen to be believed.

And yet, neither of them could still quite believe what they were seeing.

" _This_ is what you've been working on?" Cheval finally managed to ask.

"Hey, it's not like combat training has been going so well for us lately!" Lute retorted defensively. "I thought I'd get Claw to obey basic commands first, and then I just got… carried away."

He paused in his speech to lean down and pick a nice, big piece of broken fence off the ground. He wound his arm back, aimed at one of the hills in the distance, and then swung his entire body forward and threw the flat object with all his might. "Claw, fetch!"

Tongue lolling out of its jaws ecstatically, Claw barked with excitement as he bounded after the airborne wood.

"Lute… sometimes I wonder about you," Lilia stated, flatly.

Before the boy could answer, a high-pitched scream came from somewhere in the distance, followed by a series of furious-sounding barks. It didn't take a genius to figure out the source.

"… Navirou?" Cheval said.

Frowning in confusion, Lilia added, "I thought he was smart enough not to make a Monstie angry."

Lute rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but Claw hates Navi for some reason. My guess is that it's either because he's a cat or because he looks like a giant squirrel."

They thought on that for a second before shrugging nonchalantly and deciding it wasn't their problem.

An exhausted Navirou came back to Cheval's place for dinner that night, with several whiskers missing and a pair of crutches under his arms. Claw was right behind him, holding the broken fence proudly in his jaws.

* * *

 **Monstie #23 – the Corpse Dragon**

" _Awaken!_ "

Lute felt a thrill course through his entire body when the improvised Kinship Rite succeeded in awakening the monster. Glowing cracks spread across the eggshell, which were forced apart as tentacles sprouted from within and quickened the egg's fracturing. The shell finally fell away to reveal a disgusting mass of quivering black flesh and slithering arms.

"Urp!" Navirou put both hands over his mouth and tried not to be sick. "Wh-What is this foul creature that insults Navirou with its mere presence?"

Upon closer inspection, the mass of flesh was actually some kind of cephalopod. Its tentacles, rather than all being grouped together, were positioned all over its body – about six in normal positions around its mouth, two extremely long ones at its sides, and the rest positioned underneath its body. It blinked open a pair of yellow eyes and made a noise that was half-squeak and half-squelch.

"Hey, I think it's pretty cool!" Lute enthused, bending down to examine the eyesore. It wriggled with excitement and made a delighted shrieking sound.

Lilia, who hadn't spoken at all since she spoke the words for the Rite of Kinship, suddenly dropped a fist into her palm and exclaimed, "Of course, _that's_ why I couldn't recognize it! It's a Nakarkos!"

Tapping his chin in thought, Cheval asked, "Aren't those supposed to be covered in bones?"

"Exactly!" said Lilia, nodding. "Lute, you and your new Monstie better go on a lot of gathering quests and find as many Small Monster Bones, Mystery Bones, and Unknown Skulls as you can."

He nodded as well and bent down to pick up the baby Nakarkos. Instinctively, its tentacles wound around his arms and torso, almost as if the act of grabbing hold of him gave it a sense of security. It had a weird texture, kind of like the smoothness of silk combined with the stickiness of rubber.

"Alright, Karko," he addressed and nicknamed it simultaneously, "we'd better get a move on if we want to find enough bones to cover you up."

"For all our sakes," grumbled Navirou, giving the cuttlefish monster the stink-eye.

In response, it unwound one of its tentacles from Lute's body and zapped him in the tail with a red beam of Dragon-element energy.

-.-.-.-.-.

When Lute and Reverto entered _The Gobul's Lantern_ in search of information on the whereabouts of Dr. Manelger, the former was surprised to see that it was actually a hunter's tavern. The dim atmosphere was slightly musty and lit mostly by sunlight streaming through the square-shaped windows. All around the room were various men and women bedecked in dozens of different kinds of armor, drinking Tanzian Ale or locked in arm-wrestling duels. Occasionally, a round of cheers and applause would rise up from a table whenever someone won a match.

As the young Rider and adult hunter walked toward the bar, they passed a group of hunters swapping stories of past hunts. One man was saying, "And so I was collecting Nitroshrooms, minding my own business, when I took one look over my shoulder and suddenly shouted, ' _Gods damnit, Deviljho!_ '"

Laughter rang out into the tavern from the storytelling hunters. "We've all been there!" guffawed one, slapping the speaker fondly on his armor-plated shoulder.

Reverto was chuckling to himself at his fellow hunters' remarks as he sat down at the bar and struck up a conversation with the bartender. They ended up drawing a bit of attention when the other hunters realized that they were in the presence of the Lone Wolf Hunter and the Rider who had saved Albarax Village from the blighted Diablos, so they ended up staying a bit longer than they'd intended. However, they did get some good information about where Dr. Manelger might be hiding, so it wasn't a waste of time by any means.

But as Lute was soon to find out, being popular had its downsides.

When he and Reverto stepped out the door, they found themselves suddenly confronted with a shifty-looking assailant. The man tackled Reverto against the side of the tavern and held his arms behind his back, while his Felyne partner-in-crime shoved a nasty-looking Bone Wedge into Lute's face and forced him against the wall.

"Hey, what's the deal?!" Lute demanded, only for the cat's weapon to be pushed against his nose.

"The deal is, nya, we're rogue hunters," the Felyne smirked. "Some dude named Dr. Manelpurr is offuring a reward to anyone who can get him a Rider's Kinship Stone. So we'll need that fancy trinket of yours if you don't want there to be any claws for concern, nya."

Upon saying this, his mean little sharp-toothed grin grew smug. The rogue hunter, who had yet to say a word, pressed Reverto even harder against the building and twisted his arms until Lute's mentor couldn't help but grunt in pain. The blonde man shot Lute a look full of frustration before his face was squished further into the wall.

Lute felt an instant flash of rage rush through his body. So the mad scientist was still at large, and he was willing to put a bounty on innocent Riders if it meant getting his greedy hands on a Kinship Stone? And seeing the great Reverto rendered so helpless boiled Lute's blood even more, motivating him to do something he'd normally never do.

It was against his nature to willingly set a Monstie on a fellow human being, but these rogue hunters were lower than dirt and needed to be taught some respect.

A flash of determination lit Lute's eyes on fire, and with a single blow, he dramatically kicked the Felyne aside and prepared to get his revenge – cephalopod style!

"You crooks are going to wish you'd _boned up_ on Riders!" the Rider claimed, and activated his Kinship Stone. "Ride On! Nakarkos!"

The ground suddenly trembled beneath their feet, and a giant cuttlefish covered from beak to siphon in old monster bones emerged from the dirt at its Rider's beckoning. Despite not being a full-grown Nakarkos – such was the side effect of the Rite of Kinship, after all – it was still larger than a man with a gnashing mouth-hole wide enough to swallow a Kelbi.

Hopping aboard the saddle, Lute declared, "Come on, Karko! It's time to get _kraken_ and make these losers _wishbone_ they hadn't been so _marrow_ -minded!"

Karko flexed its tentacles, which were decorated with monster skulls, and opened its beak with a threatening screech. Its many bioluminescent spots flickered blue to intimidate its opponents. All of a sudden, the mercenary and his Felyne weren't looking so confident about that bounty.

"Get that guy off of Reverto with your breath attack!" commanded Lute.

A tentacle-skull instantly swiveled around to face the man, its glowing "eyes" seemingly staring into his own, before it gushed a torrent of sticky blue slime to douse him. He stumbled back and looked down at himself in disgust, but before he could speak, the newly freed Reverto lunged for him and decked him in the mouth.

"Meowster!" cried the anthropomorphic cat. "Are you still feline fine?! We can still purrcure our reward if – GURK!"

Reverto's hand came down and grabbed the Felyne by the neck, ignoring the claws that flashed out to desperately scratch at his arm. "Now that's enough outta you, y'hear? You've given Lute and me enough trouble already."

"Mister Reverto, you okay?" Lute called down from Karkos' back, while the Nakarkos kept a close eye (plus its fake ones) on the downed criminal.

"Yeah, kid, it's all good," the hunter replied. "You're not part of the Hunter's Guild, so feel free to give that piece of Gargwa dung some payback."

"SQUEEEEEEEE!" Karko agreed with a squelchy, squeaking cry.

Lute nodded, his eyes hardening as he once again regarded the slime-covered mercenary. "You've gotta be _squidding_ me – that pain in the _tarsal_ is willing to do something so low to get a Kinship Stone? I don't even want to _mollusk_ why!"

"O-Okay, let's play nice, kid…" the mercenary quavered, in an attempt to calm Lute down.

But that was the wrong thing to say to the furious Rider. "Play nice? Not when you've been playing so _naughty-lus_! I've got a _bone_ to pick with you, pal, so suck it up and take it like a _mandible_!"

With a dramatic flair, he raised his Kinship Stone, which unlocked with its distinctive clicking sound. "It's time to put you in for a _skeleton_ of pain! Karko, use your Kinship Attack – GRAVEYARD CALAMARITY!"

Unleashing a hideous, warbling screech, Karko slammed both tentacles into the ground and summoned a ring of giant rib bones to encircle the corrupt hunter and his Felyne, whom Reverto had tossed aside. Its spots now glowing a bright, angry scarlet, the Nakarkos pointed its tentacles at the ground and rocketed into the air with the force of twin Dragon-element laser beams. Finally, it spread its facial tentacles wide and charged up a frighteningly-large ball of crackling red energy, before launching it as a destructive beam that plowed into the ground and practically consumed the ribcage with dark red light.

When the apocalyptic attack had ended, there was a gigantic, scorched crater in the middle of the street. In the center lay a man and a Felyne, their unconscious forms sprawled out and covered in black soot.

"Yeah, now that's what I call showing some real _backbone_!" Lute joked, jumping down from Karkos' back. "What should we do now, Mister Reverto?"

"Eh, we'll just leave them there for the Chief to deal with," the hunter shrugged. "They'll get back to the Hunter's Guild and arrested no problem. For now, though, we got the info we needed on that mad doctor, so let's get goin'."

The two of them left _The Gobul's Lantern_ and started down the streets of Albarax, spending the first few minutes of their walk in silence while Karko slithered behind them.

"So, kid," Reverto said conversationally. "When did you get so over-the-top and dramatic?"

Lute flashed him an almost manic grin. "I never realized it before, but it's surprisingly fun! Throw me a _bone_ here!"

That last pun earned him an exasperated, yet friendly, cuff to the head from his mentor.

* * *

 **Monstie #24 – the Black Eclipse Wyvern (Part 2)**

It was a battle for the fate of the world.

Atop the very pinnacle of the Ruins of Redan, the foul Makili Pietru stood atop the pedestal as it spread its feathered wings menacingly, guarding the blackening Kinship Ore from those who sook to purify it. The Black Blight was causing the magical stone to grow in size and form a great, spiky tower of crystal. In mere moments, all would be lost, as the infected ore would release the Black Blight across the land.

Beneath the pedestal, five Riders looked upon their foe with teeth gritted in fear and frustration. They had thought that hatching the egg of the White Dragon would bring an end to the Black Blight – but alas, they had been mistaken. Whether it had been Cheval's misuse of its powers or just a natural part of its life cycle, the Versa Pietru had rapidly mutated into the dark Makili Pietru, known in ancient legend as nothing but the "Black Dread". Its powers allowed it to harness and control the Black Blight, to the point where the Kinship Ore was about to burst with the calamitous force rapidly accumulating inside of it.

The sky was darkening rapidly, clouds swirling overhead to choke out the sun. Soon, the only source of light was from the infected Kinship Ore, stretching up into the sky like a poisonous purple flower.

"Monsties, everyone!" Lute yelled above the sound of the ominous, prophetic wind, which heralded the coming end of all life. "We still have time to defeat the Black Dread before its spreads its blight over the entire world!"

The others – Cheval, Debli, Avinia, Navirou, and Lilia – all nodded, despite the latter two not actually being Riders. Together, they raised their left hands and called upon their Monsties to fight alongside them in the final battle.

"Ride On!" cried Avinia. "Barioth!"

"Ride On!" shouted Cheval. "Rathian!"

"Ride On!" bellowed Debli. "Great Poogie!"

"Ride On!" finished Lute. "Gore Magala!"

Frostfang, Rathi, and Gala flew up over the side of the tower and landed simultaneously at their respective Rider's sides, while Great Poogie simply popped out of the floor underneath Debli. The Barioth howled, the Rathian roared, the Gore Magala screeched, and the Poogie squealed a battle challenge, defiant against the strength of the coming blight. All of them instinctively knew that their foe was the Black Blight itself and that this battle was the one that had been in the making since the start. They all knew that they must fight to the bitter end in order to prevent the world from being overtaken, and were all fully prepared to do so.

But the battle did not go off to a pleasant start. The Makili Pietru threw its head back and wailed, the sound bringing chills to the spines of all who were present. A purple light gleamed around it, taking the form of an invisible sphere of energy that surrounded the elder dragon and protected it from all harm. Indeed, when the Riders took to the skies and ordered their Monsties to attack, the barrier revealed itself in a flash of violet in order to repel the ice, fire, and virus that struck it. No harm was done to the Makili Pietru, which now soared into battle to meet its challengers.

Shocked beyond belief that their attacks had been so effortlessly deflected, the Riders panicked and scrambled to get out of the way of the airborne dragon. Cheval was the first to fall, when the Black Dread slammed its horns into Rathi and forced her to crash-land. Avinia took the opportunity to swoop in from behind, but when Frostfang's talons scraped harmlessly against the dragon's barrier, it turned around and smacked them aside with its wing. It landed, and Debli was suddenly there, charging ahead valiantly atop Great Poogie's back. He lasted no longer than the other two did – a brief lash of the Makili Pietru's tail was enough to send the pair flying into a pillar.

Now only Lute and Gala remained. They were brave until the end, swooping and diving around the Makili Pietru, firing their virus blasts whenever the opportunity arose. However, even they had to fall, purged from the sky by a savage breath attack. The blast shot Lute's entire body through with pure pain, so much so that he didn't even feel himself hit the ground.

He lay down on the stone floor, only the sheer force of his will keeping his heavy eyelids open, and found himself facing Gala. The Gore Magala was lying beside him limply, seemingly awake but tired and in agony. They stared at each other silently for several seconds.

"Sorry, Gala," Lute whispered. His smile was sad, and tears poured from his eyes as he promised, "But even if we die, our kinship will still never be broken."

Weakly, he reached out to stroke Gala's head. If Gala had eyes, it would've closed them reverently as it accepted its Rider's last gesture of affection.

And then the unexpected happened – the Gore Magala's entire body started to shake. It seemed to have been possessed with renewed strength as it pressed its wingarms against the ground and struggled to push itself back onto its feet. Its exoskeleton was fracturing, the cracks rapidly spreading to encompass its whole body. Beams of light shone intensely through the cracks, so intensely that they seemed to be crumbling the Monstie's black shell to dust.

Lute couldn't look away, all fatigue forgotten as he stared at the incredible phenomenon. Gala's skin was disintegrating and falling off, revealing scales of pure gold underneath. The Gore Magala flexed its wings one final time and shed the last of its old exoskeleton, completing its metamorphosis into a whole new creature. It narrowed its new eyes and spread its shining golden cape with a victorious cry.

Like the phoenix, Gala had been rebirthed, stronger than ever.

"Shagaru Magala!" Lilia cried out in wonder, falling to her knees with a combination of delight and awe. "Everyone, the prophecy has come true! It's the true White Dragon spoken of in the legend of Redan!"

Indeed, the Shagaru Magala's scales glowed so brightly that they seemed almost blinding white instead of gold. His pain entirely forgotten, Lute sprang to his feet as if Gala's transformation had filled him with new strength as well. He jumped into the saddle and raised his Kinship Stone one last time, adding a touch of blue to the glow of gold and white.

"Ride On!" shouted the next coming of Redan. "Shagaru Magala!"

Gala unleashed a distorted version of its old animalistic scream, the cry speaking of power and triumph. Pushing off the ground with its wingarms, it rocketed into the sky above the ruins and gained height until it resembled a star, filling the Riders with new hope.

The Makili Pietru raised its head toward that ethereal golden light, its wings spreading broadly on either side of it and its barrier strengthening with a glimmer of ominous purple.

Shifting his position in the saddle so that he was now standing instead of sitting atop it, Lute prepared to strike the final blow.

"Time to finish this!" he roared. "Kinship Attack – _HEAVEN'S WHEEEEEEEL!_ "

The Kinship Attack struck – Gala summoned enough Frenzy virus around it to turn itself into a meteor, the flames crackling behind it purplish-black while the center was blinding white. It was this comet of burning light and suffocating darkness that struck the Makili Pietru head-on, slamming against it with so much force that the shield was broken and the entirety of the ruins completely engulfed in the ensuing explosion.

When the Riders uncovered their eyes, they saw a golden elder dragon descending from the sky before them, Lute perched victoriously on its back. Behind him, the Kinship Ore turned back to its original healthy green, signifying the end of the Black Dread.

"You did it!" Debli was the first to exclaim. "Lute, my _man_! You're the greatest Rider I've ever seen, dude!"

"Navirou always believed!" announced the Felyne. "Navirou always knew his top pupil would rise to become the best Rider! And that's _a Navi-rule_!"

"I've never been more proud to call you part of my family, Lute," Cheval murmured, his eyes wet with tears.

All of the Riders (plus Navirou) went around exchanging celebratory hugs, so ecstatic were they in their victory. Once that was done, they went to hug their Monsties as well – at least most of them did. Debli tried, but Great Poogie charged right into him and kept going without a second thought, leaving its Rider to lay half-trampled on the floor.

"I'm so glad it's all over," Lilia sighed, giving the others an exhausted smile. "All that training we did in the village, all the hardships we faced on our journey, all the work I did with the Scriveners… it was all worth –"

The roar of a monster interrupted her, and startled them all into turning around. It had come from the pedestal on which the Kinship Ore still stood, and at first, they thought with terror in their hearts that it was the Makili Pietru, rising back up to destroy them once and for all.

But no, it was Gala. It stood atop the Kinship Ore, its star-shaped wings flared out to their fullest span as it posed elegantly for all of Mt. Celion to see. Its golden glow could probably be seen from miles away, like a twinkling star perched on top of the mountain peak.

That, however, was not what drew the attention of the Riders – rather, it was the enormous amounts of black-purple fog being spread by the Shagaru Magala's flapping wings. Even as they watched, the area was becoming enshrouded in it, making it harder and harder to see.

"What's going on?" Cheval cried. "Don't tell me it's been infected with the blight again!"

Avinia shook her head at him. "No, that's its Frenzy virus… but I've never seen it produce so much of it."

They noticed that Lilia was looking sort of guilty. When they turned to the all-knowing one for an explanation, she sheepishly obliged them with, "Yeah, um, I came across a passage referring to this in the Scriveners' library… Apparently there was a village called Cathar that was attacked by a Shagaru Magala, and it spread its virus all around its mountain to make the local monsters crazy and aggressive. It's part of its life cycle, I think? I don't really know the details…"

They gazed worriedly up at Gala with this new information in mind. The Shagaru Magala showed no signs of ceasing its virus production – the clouds were now darkening the sky even further, and probably spreading all over Mt. Celion.

An unsettling possibility popped into all of their heads at once… had they unintentionally created a second disaster so soon after saving the world from the first one?

"What do we do?" Debli asked, a bit timidly.

"Gala can't exactly stop producing Frenzy," was Lilia's hopeless answer.

"But we _can't_ kill Gala!" Lute burst out, feeling close to panic. "We've been through so much together!"

Looking at him apologetically, Avinia murmured, "I don't want to either, but… if there's no other choice…"

"Relax!" Navirou laughed obnoxiously. "If we can't stop Gala, then Navirou thinks we could always just take over the world!"

The Riders paused.

They looked at each other speculatively.

Navirou saw their considering reactions and blanched. "Uh… you guys know that Navirou was joking, right?"

No-one answered.

"… R-Right?"

-.-.-.-.-.

With the Frenzy virus now threatening to take the Black Blight's place as the world's demise, the people of the land had no choice but to accept Lute and the Riders – the only ones who could control the spreading calamity – as their new supreme overlords.

The Darj Snowfields, Pondry Hills, and Babda Rainforest were taken by Lute and Avinia, who reigned over the western half of the continent from their palace atop Mt. Celion. They kept the Frenzy in check as much as they could, and made sure to prevent any outbreaks of Frenzied monsters from destroying villages. But Gala couldn't control its spread of the Frenzy completely, and the new King and Queen could only train so many Riders to distribute across their kingdom. Casualties happened every so often, which was regrettable, but it at least served as a reminder to the public of who was in charge and who could easily make things worse for their subjects if they were displeased.

In the east, Cheval and Lilia took the Dovan Volcano as their stronghold and ruled over the Monsonne Plains and Trese Desert. Sadly, Cheval ended up letting the power get to his head and sunk into madness again, becoming an unforgiving ruler who lorded over his lands with an iron fist. Any village who didn't follow the laws or pay proper tribute found itself conveniently defenseless the next time a Frenzied monster attacked. Lilia did her best to keep the edge off of his temper, but she wasn't exactly the picture of purity herself – she had to admit that there was a kind of sick satisfaction that came with having absolute control, and let Cheval do what he wished as long as he didn't threaten to bring ruin to their whole kingdom.

As for Debli and Navirou… they had Naubaka Island to themselves, which they transformed into a paradise for Felynes and Poogies everywhere. They basically lazed around eating donuts and pickles all day, only getting out of their beachside hammocks to fight the occasional Frenzied monster, and treated their fellow overlords to some vacation time every now and again.

The world wasn't exactly in tip-top shape, but hey, it could've been a lot worse. Everyone could've gotten killed by the Black Blight. That would've been kind of a bummer.

* * *

 **1\. Anyone else wonder where those Jaggis come from when Best Raptor does his Kinship Skill? And where they go afterwards?**

 **2\. So I've been wanting to make a Gurren Lagann reference in one of my stories for some time now, and then I remembered Yian Garuga's Kinship Skill…**

 **3\. Based on how it's portrayed in the MH Generations cutscenes, Gammoth don't take no sh*t from anybody.**

 **4\. Seregios – aka Death of a Thousand Cuts, Usurper of the Skies, Pinecone Birb, or Steve.**

 **5\. Anyone read my crossover "Monsters of Berk"? No?**

 **6\. I actually greatly dislike Odogaron. But this was still funny.**

 **7\. Blame Undertale, Fossil Fighters: Champions, and Yo-Kai Watch for inspiring the ungodly amount of bone/cephalopod puns.**

 **8\. Okay, so that ending might seem completely random and a little dark, but the idea was festering in my head for a while and I thought it was hilariously morbid. Maybe someone else could do an AU of this "overlord" scenario. I don't know, it could be interesting.**

 **-.-.-.-.-.**

 **So that's it for this little collection of one-shots. Thanks so much for all your support, readers – you've really made me love writing MH Stories fanfiction! I never realized that I like writing large ham!Lute and married!Lute so much, lol. May your hunts be successful and your item boxes full of Rath Plates!**


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